can a sea."

"You're right. We have a better chance so than if we let her ride.
She'd founder as sure as eggs are eggs. Damn it, Mac, I could almost be
glad this has happened now we've got them two aboard. We'll teach 'em
what coffin ships is like in a gale o' wind." The rough seaman laughed
hoarsely as he spoke.

The carpenter came aft at this moment, balancing himself as best he
could, for the deck was only a few degrees off the perpendicular.

"The leak is gaining fast," he said. "The hands are clean done up.
There's land on the port bow."

The mate and the captain peered out through the dense wrack and haze.
A great dark cliff loomed out upon the left, jagged, inhospitable, and
menacing.

"We'd best run towards it," the mate said. "We've na chance o' saving
the ship, but we might run her ashore."

"The ship will go down before you reach it," the carpenter remarked
gloomily.

"Keep your heart up!" Miggs shouted, and then crawled along to the
Girdlestones. "There is no hope for the ship but we may save
ourselves," he said. "You'll have to take your turn at the pumps."

They followed him forward without a word. The crew, listless and weary,
were grouped about the pumps. The feeble clanking sounded like the
ticking of a watch amid the horrible uproar which filled the air.

"Buckle to again, boys!" cried Miggs. "These two will help you and the
carpenter and mate."

Ezra and his father, the old man's grizzled locks flying wildly from his
head, seized the rope and worked with the crew, hardly able to retain
their foothold upon the slippery sloping decks. Miggs went down into
the cabin. His behaviour during the gale had been most exemplary, but
he recognized now that there was nothing more to be done, and, having
thrown off his public responsibilities, he renewed his private
peculiarities. He filled out nearly a tumblerful of raw rum and took it
off at a gulp. Then he began to sing and made his way on deck in a very
hilarious and reckless mood.

The vessel was still flying towards the rugged line of cliffs, which
were now visible along the whole horizon, the great projection on the
left being their culminating point. She was obviously sinking lower in
the water, and she plunged in a heavy, sulky manner through the waves,
instead of rising to them as she did before. The water was steadily
gaining in her interior, and it was clear that she would not float long.
The straining of the gale had incr