Thus she continued for some time, until she was interrupted by a hand being placed on her shoulder. She turned round and saw Miss O’Reilly standing near her.
“What, Kathleen, are you trying to show yonder ship the way to beat out of our bay?” asked Mr Jamieson, in his usual kind voice.
“I would I were on board, minister, that I might help to guide them,” she answered, with a laugh. “There are many worse pilots than I am, and often in girlhood’s days have I sailed with my father on yonder sea, sometimes, as now, tossed with waves, at other times calm and blue, like a young maiden’s eye, void of guile and treachery.”
“But, tell me, Kathleen, do you think the ship will manage to escape from the dangers by which she is surrounded?” asked Miss O’Reilly, in a somewhat agitated voice. “They say her captain is a brave and gallant officer, and it would be grievous if he were to lose that beautiful vessel, for so I am told she is.”
“God who guides the winds and gives them power alone knows whether yonder ship will gain the open sea in safety,” answered Kathleen; “but I will tell you, dear lady, if you stay by me, what progress she makes. If the prayer of a poor mad creature can save her, she is safe enough, and the wind will hold as it does now, sufficiently to the south to enable her to clear the reef. Oh, Miss O’Reilly, even now she seems rushing forward to destruction.”
“Whereabouts is she?” asked Miss O’Reilly eagerly.
“Not two hundred fathoms, it seems at this moment, from the reef,” answered Kathleen. “If she can come about without difficulty, she will escape, but if not, in a few minutes she will be cast on the rocks, and then you know too well what will happen.”
“Tell me, good Kathleen, tell me,” said the blind lady, after a short silence; “has she gone about? is there once more a prospect of her escaping?”
“Again she is in stays!” exclaimed Kathleen. “See, see! the wind seems to have caught her. Oh, may merciful Providence watch over her! It seems to me that her head is once more turning towards the dreadful rocks. Alas, alas! no power can save her.”
“Oh, may Heaven protect them!” exclaimed the blind lady, turning her sightless eyes in the direction of the ship. “Oh, may those brave men on board escape the fearful danger in which they are placed!”