I can't account for it; but there it was, and in
less time than it takes me to tell you we were all in the water.
Whatever I'd ha' been before, I was cool enough now. I threw one arm
round the gal, as I felt her going, and with the other I caught hold
of the side of the boat. We was under water for a moment, and then I
made shift to get hold of the rudder as she floated bottom upwards.
The boys had stuck to her too, but they couldn't get hold of the keel;
for you know how deep them boats are forward, drawing nigh a foot of
water there more than they does astern. However, after a bit, they
managed to get down to'rds the stern, and get a hand on the keel about
halfway along. They couldn't come no nigher, because, as you know, the
keel of them boats only runs halfway along. 'Hould on, lads!' I
shouted; 'hould on for your lives! They'll have seen us from the
cliff, and 'll have a lugger out here for us in no time.'

"I said so to cheer them up; but I knew in my heart that a lugger, to
get out with that wind on, would have to run right into t'other side
o' the bay before she could get room enough to weather the brig. The
girl hadn't spoken a word since the squall struck us, except that she
gave a little short cry as the boat went over; and when we came up she
got her hands on the rudder, and held on there as well as she could
with my help. The squall did not last five minutes; and when it
cleared off I could look round and judge of our chances. They weren't
good. There was a party of people on the cliff, and another on the
brig, who were making their way out as far as they could on the brig,
for it were about half-tide. They must have seen us go over as we went
into the squall, for as we lifted I could see over the brig, and there
was a man galloping on horseback along the sands to'rds Filey as hard
as he could go. We were, maybe, a quarter of a mile off the brig, and
I saw that we should drift down on it before a boat could beat out of
the bay and get round to us. The sea was breaking on it, as it always
does break if there's ever so little wind from the east, and the spray
was flying up fifty feet in places where the waves hit the face of the
rock. There aint a worse place on all the coast than this, running as
it do nigh a mile out from the head, and bare at low water. The waves
broke over the boat heavy, and I had as much as I could do to hold on
by one hand to the rudder, which swung backwards and forwards with
every wa