tle bay. No words could describe our
condition of spellbound astonishment when she rounded-to, cumbrously as
befitting a ship towing a whale, and revealed to us the well-remembered
outlines of the old CHANCE. It was like welcoming the first-fruits
of the resurrection; for who among sailor men, having seen a vessel
disappear from their sight, as we had, under such terrible conditions,
would ever have expected to see her again? She was hardly anchored
before our skipper was alongside, thirsting to satisfy his unbounded
curiosity as to the unheard-of means whereby she had escaped such
apparently inevitable destruction. I was fortunate enough to accompany
him, and hear the story at first-hand.

It appeared that none of the white men on board, except the redoubtable
Paddy himself, had ever been placed in so seemingly hopeless and
desperate a position before. Yet when they saw how calm and free from
anxiety their commander was, how cool and business-like the attitude
of all their dusky shipmates, their confidence in his ability and
resourcefulness kept its usual high level. It must be admitted that the
test such feelings were then subjected to was of the severest, for to
their eyes no possible avenue of escape was open. Along that glaring
line of raging, foaming water not a break occurred, not the faintest
indication of an opening anywhere wherein even so experienced a pilot
as Paddy might thrust a ship. The great black wall of rock loomed up
by their side, grim and pitiless as doom--a very door of adamant closed
against all hope. Nearer and nearer they drew, until the roar of the
baffled Pacific was deafening, maddening, in its overwhelming volume of
chaotic sound. All hands stood motionless, with eyes fixed in horrible
fascination upon the indescribable vortex to which they were being
irresistibly driven.

At last, just as the fringes of the back-beaten billows hissed up to
greet them, they felt her motion ease. Instinctively looking aft, they
saw the skipper coolly wave his hand, signing to them to trim the yards.
As they hauled on the weather braces, she plunged through the maelstrom
of breakers, and before they had got the yards right round they were on
the other side of that enormous barrier, the anchor was dropped, and all
was still. The vessel rested, like a bird on her nest, in a deep, still
tarn, shut in, to all appearance, on every side by huge rock barriers.
Of the furious storm but a moment before howling and ra