g upon the
deck.

A Stranger to the Wild

As the vessel, a big three-masted schooner, struck again and lurched
forward, grinding heavily, she cleared the reef by somewhat more than
half her length. Then her back broke. The massive swells, pounding upon
her from the rear, overwhelmed her stern and crushed it down inescapably
upon the rock; and her forward half, hanging in ten fathoms, began to
settle sickeningly into the loud hiss and chaos. Around the reef, around
the doomed schooner, the lead-coloured fog hung thick, impenetrable at
half a ship's length. Her crew, cool, swift, ready,--they were Gaspe and
New Brunswick fishermen, for the most part,--kept grim silence, and took
the sharp orders that came to them like gunshots through the din. The
boats were cleared away forward, where the settling of the bow gave some
poor shelter.

At this moment the fog lifted, vanishing swiftly like a breath from the
face of a mirror. Straight ahead, not two miles away, loomed a high,
black, menacing shore--black, scarred rock, with black woods along its
crest and a sharp, white line of surf shuddering along its base. Between
that shore and the shattered schooner lay many other reefs, whereon the
swells boiled white and broke in dull thunder; but off to the southward
was clear water, and safety for the boats. At a glance the captain
recognized the land as a cape on the south coast of the Gaspe peninsula,
so far from her course had the doomed schooner been driven. Five minutes
more, and the loaded boats, hurled up from the seething caldron behind
the reef, swung out triumphantly on a long, oil-dark swell, and gained
the comparative safety of the open. Hardly had they done so when the
broken bow of the schooner, with a final rending of timbers, settled in
what seemed like a sudden hurry, pitched nose downward into the smother,
and sank with a huge, startling sigh. The rear half of the hull was left
lodged upon the reef, a kind of gaping cavern, with the surf plunging
over it in cataracts, and a mad mob of boxes, bales, and wine-casks
tumbling out from its black depths.

Presently the torrent ceased. Then, in the yawning gloom, appeared the
head and fore-quarters of a white horse, mane streaming, eyes starting
with frantic terror at the terrific scene that met them. The vision sank
back instantly into the darkness. A moment later a vast surge, mightier
than any which had gone before, engulfed the reef. Its gigantic front
lif