y cheer as
they reached it.

"Thank Heaven, you have escaped," said Desmond. "I saw what happened;
my heart sank so low that I thought it would never get up again to its
right place. However, `a miss is as good as a mile'; now the sooner we
are away from this the better."

Tom's and Jerry's clothes having been handed into the boat, they dressed
themselves, while the rest of the party pulled down the bay.

"I vote we eat the fish while it's warm," said Billy Blueblazes, whose
appetite (as Gerald used to say of him) "no dangers could daunt."

"Just hand me a slice, and I'll eat it as I pull." This proposal was
seconded by the looks of the men, and Tom accordingly passed portions,
with some biscuit, forward. The crew ate the fish with gusto. They
were wise in so doing, as they might have a long pull before them.
Another and another gun was heard.

"Those guns were not fired in the harbour," observed Tom; "the ship must
have put to sea."

Gerald agreed with him; but as yet the reef, which ran across the mouth
of the bay, concealed her from sight. The wind had lately been blowing
from all quarters--now down the harbour, now directly across it--until
at length a heavy squall came in through the entrance.

"We shall have a strong wind in our teeth, and a pretty heavy pull,"
observed Tom to Gerald. "I wish we had not spent so much time here; and
I shall justly get the blame, if anything happens."

"It won't much matter who gets the blame if we happen to be all
drowned," answered Gerald. "However, as we were known to have gone in
this direction, the captain will probably stand along the shore to pick
us up; and the chances are that we shall be safe on board within an hour
or so."

The men had now to bend their backs to the oars to force the boat over
the heavy seas which came rolling in through the narrow entrance. Under
other circumstances, Tom would have put back and waited for an
improvement in the weather; but the signal of recall was peremptory, and
he considered it his duty to try and get on board at all risks. The
sea, which had been so calm when they pulled along the coast, was now
tossed into heavy foam-crested billows, which came rolling on in rapid
succession, bursting with loud roars against the rock-bound shore, and
casting sheets of spray over the reef.

"We must heave our cargo overboard," said Tom, when he saw the heavy
seas come tumbling in. "The lighter the boat is the better."

The fis