This was so reasonable that there was no more to be said, and we waited impatiently for the decisive minute. At length it came. A heavy dank breath of air increased gradually but surely, until the schooner careened over heavily before it. The horizon to windward was becoming more and more obscured, the waves broke into white crests round us, and Bedloe signed to put the helm up and keep the schooner away. As the head of the ship fell off, and the sheets of the two great sails tore and struggled as they were being eased off, the pilot cried to Captain Jem that he would run the schooner close past the rock where his tent was, for that the most direct channel lay by it. Captain Jem told him that the ship was now under his charge; and at the same time emphatically slapped the stock of the pistol in his belt, as a hint that the charge was a responsible one.
In less than five minutes, we were running fast among the breakers. The squall was now blowing fiercely, with pelting rain, which mingled with the flying brine, torn up from the foaming tops of the breakers. The sea ran strange and broken in the channels of the reefs, jumping and tumbling about, furrowed and rent by the fury of the wind, and the cross sweeps of the great surges, which the lines of reef flung into different directions, and often caused to sweep round and round in great seething cauldrons of foam. Through this howling waste of waters the schooner flew like a meteor, plunging along the white tops of the seas, diverging now to one side, now to another, as the skilful eye of the pilot directed; all her motions kept thoroughly in hand, and leaving reef after reef, each avoided by a dexterous jerk of the helm, lying foaming behind.
We were now in the thick of the shoal. Ahead of us, and on the starboard bow, the rock which had been the dwarf’s habitation, rose blackly out of the water. I saw by the course that we were steering that we would shave it closely, and I sprang into the fore-rigging to keep a sharp look out. As I did so, I saw the mast of the ‘Piragua’ rocking beyond the coral ledge—the canoe being evidently well sheltered in the lee of the rock. The squall now grew heavier and heavier, and on we drove in the thick of it, the sea flashing and hissing around us. We were close upon the reef. I could have touched the coral with an oar, as the receding wave poured down its jagged ledges, when all at once Bedloe shouted with a voice, which, though shrill, was as clear as a trumpet—
‘Starboard—hard a starboard!’
I started round at the sound; and just at that moment, as the schooner’s bow sheered to port, I saw the form of Bedloe, one instant poised upon the bulwark, and the next projected by a desperate leap into the air, and plunging amid the silvery tumult of the surges; into which, however, the dusky form had not yet vanished, when Captain Jem’s pistols flashed and exploded with two rapid reports. Instinctively I turned ahead. The pestilent dwarf had by his last order sought to wreck the ship. Before us lay a barrier of coral, over which the sea poured, as a mighty river flashes over a weir.
‘Port—hard a port—for the love of life—port!’ I roared.
It was just in time; the schooner surged round from the reef, struggling and plunging in the tempest, and then shooting along the rock. We saw the piragua tossing on the broken water, and one of the naked crew in the act of leaping overboard with a line, no doubt to the aid of the dwarf, whose head, as he swam skilfully and strongly, favoured by the eddy, rose every minute upon the tops of the uneven and broken surges.
A hoarse shout of rage burst, in one inarticulate cry, from every one on board the schooner, but we had our own lives to look after. Fortunately, we were now in the channel which I had been in the act of buoying, when we discovered the dwarf’s retreat. My marks I could not, of course, discern; but I well knew the general lie of the reefs, and keeping my station in the weather-fore-rigging, I mustered all my coolness to con the ship. We had a dozen of hair-breadth escapes as we flew along. Very often the squall blew with such fury that the whole surface of the sea, deep and shallow, was of the same whiteness. Then a temporary lull would enable me to see the whereabouts of the ledges and banks, which I had already surveyed, so that I was enabled to shout my directions to Captain Jem with something like confidence. But after all, it was terrible guess-work. A sharp eye to watch, a skilful hand to work the ship, a steady heart to keep that eye bright and that hand firm, were what we needed, and that happily we possessed, so that after near half an hour, during which we stood with hands clenched and teeth set, no man daring to draw a full breath, we shot out from the bosom of shoals, and knew from the heavy rolling of the swells that we were in deep water, and in the open sea.
Lucky for us, it was not until then that the full fury of the squall came roaring down. The sky grew well nigh as mirk as midnight, and the tempest hurtled through the air like the sweep of chariots and mighty squadrons in the clouds.
‘In with all! furl and brail—furl and brail!’ shouted Captain Jem.