en except in its fruits, was clearly setting the
little craft to leeward, and bodily towards the rocks. By this time our
adventurers were so near the land that they almost gave up hope itself.
Cape Hatteras and its much-talked-of dangers, seemed a place of refuge
compared to that in which our navigators now found themselves. Could the
deepest bellowings of ten thousand bulls be united in a common roar, the
noise would not have equalled that of the hollow sound which issued from a
sea as it went into some cavern of the rocks. Then, the spray filled the
air like driving rain, and there were minutes when the cape, though so
frightfully near, was hid from view by the vapour.

At this precise moment, the Sea Lion was less than a quarter of a mile to
windward of the point she was struggling to weather, and towards which she
was driving under a treble impetus; that of the wind, acting on her sails,
and pressing her ahead at the rate of fully five knots, for the craft was
kept a rap full; that of the eddy, or current, and that of the rolling
waters. No man spoke, for each person felt that the crisis was one in
which silence was a sort of homage to the Deity. Some prayed privately,
and all gazed on the low rocky point that it was indispensable to pass, to
avoid destruction. There was one favourable circumstance; the water was
known to be deep, quite close to the iron-bound coast, and it was seldom
that any danger existed, that it was not visible to the eye. This, Roswell
knew from Stimson's accounts, as well as from those of other mariners, and
he saw that the fact was of the last importance to him. Should he be able
to weather the point ahead, that which terminated at the mouth of the
passage that led within the Hermits, it was now certain it could be done
only by going fearfully near the rocks.

Roswell Gardiner took his station between the knight-heads, beckoning to
Stimson to come near him. At the same time, Hazard himself went to the
helm.

"Do you remember this place?" asked the young master of the old seaman.

"This is the spot, sir; and if we can round the rocky point ahead, I will
take you to a safe anchorage. Our drift is awful, or we are in an eddy
tide here, sir!"

"It is the eddy," answered Roswell, calmly, "though our drift is not
trifling. This is getting frightfully near to that point!"

"Hold on, sir--it's our only chance;--hold on, and we may rub and go."

"If we _rub_, we are lost; that is certain enough