Surely not against the rocky wall toward which they were gliding recklessly!
Alec looked anxiously at the captain, but he did not speak. If Dave did not know what he was about this was no time to question. Like his comrades, the boy resigned himself to obeying orders. These came thick and fast for a few minutes. Hugh and Chester, having lowered and lashed the jib, stood beside Norton—waiting. To Billy it seemed that the Arrow would momentarily strike that reef of rocks.
Suddenly the captain ported the helm three points.
“Haul in the booms! Lower tops’l!” he shouted.
Mechanically, in a sort of daze, they obeyed. The next minute they saw a perpendicular crevice in the face of the rock wall about twenty feet high. This fissure widened until a sheer cleft nearly thirty feet wide yawned directly in the path of the Arrow. Then they understood what the captain was driving at. Here was an ideal shelter from the coming storm.
“Lower away all!”
Almost before they realized the fact, the Arrow had glided into the crevice and was floating on a small sheet of smooth water, all sails lowered. Tugging at the anchor, Billy stood ready, waiting only the word.
“Drop anchor!” sang out Vinton, his deep voice echoing weirdly in that strange retreat.
“How much cable, Captain?”
“Fifty feet. Dave, toss the line over to that little dock.”