I am afraid. It
was of this I was thinking; for some of those makeshift spars may leave
us at any moment, and then I must lie-to."

"Is the harbour dangerous at all times?" asked Hughes.

"Most certainly not; but with an easterly gale there can be no
communication with the shore. I do not know the harbour, and have never
been there but once, which makes the attempt, if I am forced to it, the
more dangerous."

"But you have been there once, and consequently, with a seaman's
instinct, know the place," said Hughes.

"I will tell you how I know it, and what that knowledge is worth," said
the captain, seating himself beside Isabel, "and then when I go on deck
you can tell the story to Dona Isabel. She may be very anxious to set
her pretty little foot on land, but hardly in the same way I did. Some
years since I was first-mate of the brig `Vestal,' sailing under the
command of Captain Bell. We dropped our anchor on Thursday morning,
just off the bar, close to Port Natal. The following one it began to
blow, and all that day the gale increased, just as this one has done,
and from the same direction. Steward, just mix me a glass of grog.
Will you join me, captain? Better had than wish you had. No--well, you
have not to pass the night on deck, as I have--but to continue: All that
unlucky Thursday the gale steadily increased, and the sea came rolling
in mountains high. Near us lay a schooner called the `Little Nell,' and
further to sea a steamer `The Natal.' This latter got up her steam, and
under a full head went out. It was a glorious sight to see her as the
waves swept her decks, and sometimes she seemed more under water than
above it. The schooner parted from her anchors, and ran right across
the bar, thumping heavily, but she was light, and managed to cross,
though she stripped all the copper from her bottom, and had to be
docked. Towards eight o'clock, our anchors parted too, and we drifted
bodily in, the big waves pounding at our brig, and sweeping clean over
us."

"But why did you not try to run over the bar like the schooner?" asked
Hughes.

"You shall hear," continued the captain, leisurely sipping his grog.
"Our skipper lost his head. I do believe we might have run over the
bar, and, at all events, the crew have been saved, but no,--all went
against us. He let go his third anchor on the bar itself. Wood and
iron could not stand the fearful sea running there. She struck right
between the breakw