“Yes, sir, indeed that is a lovely girl, Lady Nora; he will be a happy man who wins her.”
“That is a matter, Mr Merton, too delicate for me to pronounce on,” answered the lieutenant; “but I was speaking of the difficulty of beating out of the bay.”
“Oh yes, sir, I beg your pardon,” said the midshipman; “still I believe we shall be able to carry all sail, and if so, the Ariadne will soon find her way out of this difficulty.”
“That is an ugly reef to the north,” observed the lieutenant; “I would rather it were fifty miles away than where it is.”
“Yet it affords us good shelter when the wind is as it was this morning.”
“So it does,” answered the lieutenant, “but it is directly in our way when we have to beat out when the wind is in the west.”
The captain made no remark to the midshipman in his boat; he was too completely absorbed in his own thoughts, though he occasionally urged his crew to greater exertion by the usual exclamation of “Give way, lads, give way.”
The boats were soon alongside. Directly they were seen coming, the officer in command had begun to get the corvette under weigh, and when the captain stepped on board the anchor was hove up to the bows.
The corvette, under topsails and top-gallant-sails, was now hauled close to the wind. She cast to the north, and stood directly towards the reef of rocks which appeared ahead. The captain took his place in the weather rigging, to con her, while scarcely had sail been made on the ship before the increase of wind made it doubtful whether she would carry what was already set. The dark clouds came rolling up in thick masses from the west overhead, while heavy seas, topped with foaming crests, rolled in from the same direction. The corvette heeled over until her lee ports were in the water, still it was not a moment for shortening sail. Now the young commander gazed at the shore under his lee, now to the dark rocks ahead, and now at his masts and spars. “No higher,” he had more than once to cry out, as the men at the helm, anxious to gain every advantage, kept her too close to the wind. “We cannot hope to weather the reef on this tack,” he observed to the lieutenant, who was near him.
The crew were all at their stations, attentive to obey the least sign from their commander. Now a fiercer gust than ordinary made the ship heel lower in the water. Now she rose again. It was a critical moment as she rushed forward with headlong speed towards the threatening reef, over which the sea was already furiously beating. Still the young commander stood calm and collected. Now his hand was raised, and as he glanced towards the helmsman, now he looked once more to the sails aloft. “Hands about ship,” he shouted in a clear, ringing voice, which every man heard fore and aft. “Helm’s-alee! Tacks and sheets! Main sail haul!” It seemed as if in another moment the beautiful vessel would spring forward upon the threatening rocks. She was in stays, but the slightest shift of wind to the south would have driven her to destruction. Anxiously the commander looked at the fore-topsail still aback. For an instant the ship’s head appeared not to be moving. Then gradually the wind forced her round. “Of all haul!” he shouted in a cheerful voice, as she sprang forward towards the opposite side of the bay. Still she was not free. The headway she made was counteracted by the heavy seas which now rolled in upon the land, and forced her towards it. Now she was standing towards Kilfinnan Castle. The commander turning, looked at the reef they had left; then once more casting his gaze ahead,—“We shall scarcely weather it the next tack,” he said to himself. “If the wind holds as it does now, however, and if it does not increase much, the tight little ship will still work her way through it.”