The ship did settle. She seemed to be wedged between two rocks that were holding her tightly, all on the slant. Waves splashed over one side of her deck.
For a few minutes the children hardly dared to breathe—and then Andy spoke.
"She's fast," he said. "She may have a hole in her bottom, but she won't sink while she's held like this. We must wait till dawn»
So they waited, clinging uncomfortably to the slanting sides of the ship. Dawn was not far off It silvered the eastern sky as they waited The light grew stronger, and then a gold edge appeared on the horizon. The sun was about to rise.
And in the golden light of the early sun they saw something not far off that made them shout for joy.
"Land ho!" they yelled, and would have danced in delight if only the deck had not been so slanting. And land ho there certainly was!
A sandy shore stretched to a rocky cliff Stunted trees grew further inland, touched with gold by the rising sun. It was an island of some sort, desolate, rocky and lonely—but it was at least land! Somewhere where they could light a fire and boil water to make themselves warm. Somewhere where other people might be to give them a helping hand.
"We'll have to swim for it," said Andy. "It's not very far. Once we're clear of these rocks we'll be all right. In fact, now that the tide has gone down a bit we could almost walk over the rocks, to the shallow water that runs up the shore."
Andy held out his hand to Mary. Tom helped Jill. Half-wading, half-swimming, they made their way over and between the reef of rocks, and paddled to shore. The sun had warmth in it now and warmed their cold bodies. How glad they all were that they had taken Andy's advice and had put on warm clothes!
"Well," said Andy, when they had reached the shore, "we'll climb up these cliffs and see if we can spot anyone's house."