"Now is the pinch," he said, "and if the ship behaves well, we are safe; but if otherwise, all we have yet done will be useless."The veteran seaman whom he addressed left the chains at this portentous notice, and calling to his first lieutenant, required of the stranger an explanation of his warning.
"See you yon light on the southern headland?" returned the pilot; "you may know it from the star near it by its sinking at times in the ocean. Now observe the hummock1 a little north of it, looking like a shadow in the horizon; "tis a hill far inland. If we keep that light open from the hill, we shall do well; but if not, we surely go to pieces.""Let us tack again!" exclaimed the lieutenant.
The pilot shook his head as he replied: "There is no more tacking or box-hauling2 to be done to-night. We have barely room to pass out of the shoals on this course; and if we can weather the Devil"s Grip, we clear their outermost point; but if not, as I said before, there is but an alternative.""If we had beaten out the way we entered," exclaimed Griffith, "we should have done well.""Say, also, if the tide would have let us do so," returned the pilot, calmly. "Gentlemen, we must be prompt; we have but a mile to go, and the ship appears to fly. That topsail is not enough to keep her up to the wind; we want both jib and mainsail."""Tis a perilous thing to loosen canvas in such a tempest!"1Hummock: rounded knoll or hillock.
2Box-hauling: going from one tack or direction to another.
observed the doubtful captain.
"It must be done," returned the collected stranger; "we perish without it. See! the light already touches the edge of the hummock; the sea casts us to leeward!""It shall be done!" cried Griffith, seizing the trumpet from the hand of the pilot.
The orders of the lieutenant were executed almost as soon as issued; and everything being ready the enormous folds of the mainsail were turned loose to the blast. There was an instant when the result was doubtful; the tremendous threshing of the heavy sail seemed to bid defiance to all restraint, shaking the ship to her center; but art and strength prevailed and gradually the canvas was distended, and bellying as it filled, was drawn down to its usual place by the power of a hundred men. The vessel yielded to this immense addition of force and bowed before it like a reed bending to a breeze. But the success of the measure was announced by a joyful cry from the stranger, that seemed to burst from his inmost soul.
"She feels it! she springs her luff! observe," he said, "the light opens from the hummock already: if she will only bear her canvas we shall go clear!"A report like that of a cannon interrupted his exclamation, and something resembling a white cloud was seen drifting before the wind from the head of the ship, till it was driven into the gloom far to leeward.
""Tis the jib, blown from the boltropes1," said the1 Boltropes: ropes stitched to the edges of sails to strengthen the sails.
commander of the frigate. "This is no time to spread light duck; but the mainsail may stand it yet.""The sail would laugh at a tornado," returned the lieutenant; "but the mast springs like a piece of steel.""Silence all!" cried the pilot. "Now, gentlemen, we shall soon know our fate. Let her luff 1- luff you can!"This warning effectually closed all discourse2, and thehardy mariners, knowing that they had already done all in the power of man to insure their safety, stood in breathless anxiety, awaiting the result. At a short distance ahead of them the whole ocean was white with foam, and the waves, instead of rolling on in regular succession, appeared to be tossing about in mad gambols. A single streak of dark billows, not half a cable"s length in width, could be discerned running into this chaos of water; but it was soon lost to the eye amid the confusion of the disturbed element. Along this narrow path the vessel moved more heavily than before, being brought so near the wind as to keep her sails touching. The pilot silently proceeded to the wheel, and with his own hands he undertook the steerage of the ship. No noise proceeded from the frigate to interrupt the horrid tumult of the ocean; and she entered the channel among the breakers with the silence of a desperate calmness.
Twenty times, as the foam rolled away to leeward, the crew were on the eve of uttering their joy, as they supposed the vessel past the danger; but breaker after breaker would still1 Luff: turn the ship"s head toward the wind. 2 Discourse: conversation; talk.
heave up before them, following each other into the general mass, to check their exultation. Occasionally the fluttering of the sails would be heard; and when the looks of the startled seamen were turned to the wheel, they beheld the stranger grasping its spokes, with his quick eye glancing from the water to the canvas. At length the ship reached a point where she appeared to be rushing directly into the jaws of destruction, when suddenly her course was changed, and her head receded rapidly from the wind. At the same instant the voice of the pilot was heard shouting, "Square away the yards! in mainsail!"A general burst from the crew echoed, "Square away the yards!" and quick as thought the frigate was seen gliding along the channel before the wind. The eye had hardly time to dwell on the foam, which seemed like clouds driving in the heavens, and directly the gallant vessel issued from her perils, and rose and fell on the heavy waves of the sea.
The seamen were yet drawing long breaths, and gazing about them like men recovered from a trance, when Griffith approached the man who had so successfully conducted them through their perils. The lieutenant grasped the hand of the other, as he said, "You have this night proved yourself a faithful pilot, and such a seaman as the world cannot equal."