fathoms quite up to the, shore. In my judgment,
Captain Gar'ner, we may run down along this land as bold as lions."

"And how does it look ahead? I've no wish to get jammed here, close aboard
of a volcano, which may be choking us all with its smoke before we know
where we are."

"Not much danger of that, sir, with this wind. These volcanoes are nothin'
but playthings, a'ter all. The vapour is driving off towards the
north-east---That was a crack, with a vengeance!"

Just as Hazard was boasting of the innocuous character of a volcano, that
near them fired a gun, as the men afterwards called it, casting into the
air a large flight of cinders and stones, accompanied by a sharp flash of
flame. All the lighter materials drove away to leeward, but the heavier
followed the law of projectiles, and scattered in all directions. Several
stones of some size fell quite close to the schooner, and a few smaller
actually came down on her decks.

"It will never do to stop here to boil our pot," cried Roswell to the
mate. "We must get away from this, Mr. Hazard, as fast as the good craft
can travel!"

"Get away it is, sir. There is nothing very near ahead to stop us; though
it does look more toward the east cape as if the field was jammed in that
quarter."

"Keep all your eyes about you, sir; and look out especially for any
opening among the smaller islands ahead. I am not without hope that the
currents which run among them may give us a clear passage in that
quarter."

These words explain precisely that which did actually occur. On went the
schooner, almost brushing the base of the volcano, causing Roswell many a
bound of the heart, when he fancied she must strike; but she went clear.
All this time, it was crack, crack, crack, from the crater, rumbling
sounds and heavy explosions; the last attended by flames, and smoke of a
pitchy darkness. A dozen times the Sea Lion had very narrow escapes when
nearest to the danger, stones of a weight to pass through her decks and
bottom falling even on the ice outside of her; but that hand which had so
benevolently stayed various other evils, was stretched forth to save, and
nothing touched the schooner of a size to do any injury. These escapes
made a deep impression on Roswell. Until the past winter he had been
accustomed to look upon things and events as matters of course. This
vacant indifference, so common to men in prosperity, was extended even to
the sublimest exhibition of the Almighty