e bar or
island. His arms and legs were weary. His eyes were hot and smarting
from lack of slumber and rest. But he stuck it out. Captain Turton
offered to relieve him, but the boy did not want to give up. Even had
he done so, the relief would have been short, as, while the commander
was proposing it, word came that the ship had sprung a small leak, and
the captain's presence was needed to see that the pumps were set
going.

"We're depending on you, Nat," he said as he left the pilot-house.

"I'll stick it out," again came the plucky reply.

About three o'clock in the morning the wind shifted. The lake became
choppy, from the cross seas, and a second section of the storm seemed
to make its appearance. Nat, who in spite of his efforts to stay awake
had caught himself nodding--in fact almost asleep once--started up
suddenly. He peered out of the windows.

There, right in the path of the vessel, illuminated by the powerful
searchlight, was a mass of foam. At the same moment the lookout
yelled:

"Breakers ahead! We're headed for a reef!"

With a quick motion, while his heart almost stopped beating, Nat spun
the little wheel around. The ship quivered. It seemed to hesitate, as
if debating whether or not to rush to destruction on the sharp rocks,
just hidden under the treacherous water, or to glide to one side.

Then, slowly, so slowly that Nat's heart almost ceased beating lest
she should not change her course quickly enough, the _Mermaid_ swung
around, and her prow was pointed away from the dangerous reef.

Nat's plucky piloting had saved the vessel!

Into the little pilot-house rushed the captain. He had heard the
lookout's cry, and had guessed what had happened.

"We were almost on Dagget's Point reef!" he exclaimed. "How did we
escape it?"

"I saw it in time," answered Nat modestly.

"Thank God!" cried the captain, as he grasped the young pilot by the
hand. "There's deep water all around us, and if we'd struck it would
have meant a terrible loss of life."

At that instant there was a hoarse scream from a siren whistle, and,
peering out of the windows of the pilot-house, Nat and the captain
saw, looming up in front of them, but some distance away, another
steamer. Nat blew a caution signal, and it was answered from the other
vessel, which quickly turned aside, and then disappeared in the mist
of rain.

"I believe they were headed right for the reef, too," said the
captain. "You warned them in time. Well