an oar, the rest doing the same.
Sheltered by the wreck, the boat at first floated in comparatively
smooth water, but scarcely had her head been got round than she was in
the foaming waves, which rolled in towards the shore. They, however,
did not break as they did at the fore part of the ship, and Ralph knew
from this that she had struck on the extreme point of a reef, and he
hoped that, could the remaining boats or rafts be launched, his
shipmates might yet be saved. Anxious to communicate this information,
he directed Jacob to steer back to the ship, but after pulling for some
time they found that they had made no progress, and it became evident
that a strong current was sweeping round the point, and that their
utmost efforts would be in vain. The boat's head was therefore once
more turned towards the shore. The current, however, swept them at a
rapid rate to the westward, so that they soon lost sight of the ship.
Not a glimpse either of the land could be obtained, and they began to
fear that they should be carried out to sea.

"Never say die if we are," observed Jacob; "it may be better for us than
having to run through the surf with the chance of being rolled over and
over in it."

The storm raged with greater fury than before. Jacob advised, as the
only hope of preserving their lives, that they should keep the boat's
head to the sea, and allow her to drift on till daylight, when they
might discover some spot where they could attempt to land with a
prospect of success. In spite of all their efforts the seas continually
washed into the boat, and compelled the two midshipmen to work hard at
baling out the water, while Ralph and Ned Hawkins, with their two oars,
kept the boat in a right position. Their anxiety about the fate of
their shipmates prevented them from contemplating as much as they would
otherwise have done the perils of their own situation. To return to the
wreck was impossible; to land in safety seemed equally so. At any
moment a raging sea might overwhelm them, and it required their utmost
strength and skill to avert the catastrophe. Now and then, as the boat
rose to the summit of a billow, Ralph fancied that he could distinguish
through the darkness the dim outline of the coast, and as its form had
changed since first seen, he was convinced that they were still drifting
along it. He feared that, unless the direction of the current changed,
they might be carried far away out to sea, when deat