Few words were spoken by any party, and, as the boat was by this time alongside, Charles Tyrrell led Lucy toward it, and with the aid of Hailes, and the captain, placed her safely in it without much difficulty; though the sea would have looked terrific to any eyes, which had not immediately before contemplated that which was running on the outside of the bay.
She was scarcely seated, and agitated a good deal by the darkness, the pitching of the boat, and all the appalling circumstances around her when the sudden sound of a cannon came booming over the water. Lucy stared, and turned to Charles Tyrrell, as if for explanation.
"We are just in time, my beloved," he said, "that is I suppose a shot to bring the schooner to;" but ere the men in the boat had rowed a hundred yards, a second gun was heard, and then another shortly after, and Hailes was heard to mutter to himself,
"That's the cutter upon the hog's back, or I never heard minute-guns before--serves them right--serves them right. They wanted to run us ashore, and now they've got ashore themselves."
Charles Tyrrell made no observation, for he could not but feel pain and anxiety at the thought of the king's vessel, and all that it contained, having struck upon the awful reef which they had passed so closely. He knew, too, that Lucy would feel the same, and he therefore refrained from explaining the probable cause of the sounds that they heard, which were repeated from minute to minute, as the boat rowed on toward the shore.
Every stroke of the oars, however, as the boat entered a little bay within the larger one, brought them into smoother water, and at length, when they were a few oars length off the shore, no one would have known that a storm was raging over the open sea, had it not been for the rapid moving of the clouds, chequered dimly with light and darkness in the sky over head, and the sharp whistling of the wind, which made itself heard above the cliffs.
Their landing was, therefore, effected with ease and safety, and Lucy could not help acknowledging to her own heart, that she was relieved and rejoiced, even more than she had expected, on finding her foot once more upon the firm land.
"Now you know your way to Alcombe, Master Hailes," said one of the men in the boat, "you can't well miss it."
Hailes only replied by an "ay! ay!" and the boat pushed off again as fast as possible toward the ship.