“And all I have to do is to obey it?”
“That is all; but you will find it enough, because the sea will seem to fight you. It will shake the boat to make you leave go, and will perhaps dash in your face to make you leave go.”
“Forewarned, forearmed, Mr. Dodd. I will not let go. I will hold on by my eyelids sooner than add to your danger.”
“Jack, she is on fire; she gives me double heart.”
“So she does me. She makes it a pleasure.”
They were now near enough the point to judge what they had to do, and the appearance of the sea was truly terrible; the waves were all broken, and a surge of devouring fire seemed to rage and roar round the point, and oppose an impassable barrier between them and the inky pool beyond, where safety lay under the lee of the high rocks.
“I don't like it,” said David. “It looks to me like going through a strip of hell fire.”
“But it is narrow,” said Lucy.
“That is our chance; and the tide is coming in. We will try it. She will drench us, but I don't much think she will swamp us. Are you ready, all hands?”
“Oh! please wait a minute, till I do up my hair.”