Part 51 (1/2)
The dog vanes blew out
”Hurrah! here co enough presently to et that ironwork of ours to rights”
The capstan wasround than a loud report was heard The iven hen the cable ran out to the clench, carrying away the stoppers, and running through both coain shackled together and the anchor hove up No sooner did it appear above water than Tom, as on the forecastle, exclai but the shank and stock re”
Sail was nowto the ard, by which she approached nearer and nearer the shore Every stitch of canvas that could be set was hoisted The wind shi+fted to the very worst quarter from which it could blow The shi+p stood on, however, close-hauled, first on the starboard tack, and then, the wind shi+fting half a point or so, for the purpose of taking advantage of it, she was put about Every sheet and brace was flattened aft; still, judging by the roar of the breakers, she was no further off the threatening coast than at first
Many an eye was turned to leeward in an endeavour to discover the line of the coast, which, through the glooht sky
”We still hold our own,” said Jack to Archie Gordon, alking the deck ”If we can continue to do that until the sea goes doe may still do well; and we must hope, if we should let drop an anchor, that it will prove sounder than the last Probably the engineers will by that tiet steam on the shi+p She doesn't sail close-hauled as well as I expected, and we never before have had an opportunity of testing her as we are now doing”
”I suspect that it is the current carrying her to leeward,” observed Archie ”Possibly the wind ht, and we shall then be better able to claw off the land”
All night long the captain, endeavouring to take advantage of every change of wind, frequently put the shi+p about, anxiously wishi+ng for daylight, to be able to judge better than he could during the darkness of her distance fro showed no increase of depth, which ranged fro approached, the water shallowed, showing that she was nearer than she had been when night closed in
”By the deep, twenty,” sang out the man in the chains A short tiht she was in ten fatho the entrance to Waterloo Bay were seen under the lee The bay afforded no shelter with the wind blowing, as it then did, directly into it Jack hoisted the signals, ”Can the troops land?” The answer run up on shore was, ”Not until the weather moderates”
In a short tiht up in nine fatho was also got on the cable, in case of requiring to slip, and a bow-rope for a slip-rope, while the spare anchor was shi+fted to the cathead, in lieu of the one carried away, that everything ht be ready in case of necessity
The pilot, on discovering that the rave He had been accusto vessels all his life, and had no love for steaet their work done,” he observed to the master ”This is a queer place when the wind is as it is, though well enough when it's off shore”
After breakfast, theabout her, inquired why they could not land
”Because the boats would be upset and rolled over and over in these breakers, and you, obbled up by a shark!”
answered Billy, to whom the question was put ”They would choose you first I'm sure, if I was a shark, I shouldn't like to eat your papa or elica; yet she smiled at what she considered Billy's compliment
Billy, who had recovered his verses froht this a good opportunity of presenting the that the major's eyes were turned another way, took the paper out of his pocket and gave it to her
”These lines, my dearest, will show you the depth of elica, with a blush, which she had the art of coathered on her brow as she read--
”'Tall as a poplar, sharp as a thorn; I should never have missed you had you never been born
Roses are sweet and lilies are fair, But they lose their beauty when seen in your hair'”
”Do you ry tone, as she continued to read on the doggerel which Toiven hihter with a paper in her hand, and Billy standing by her side He, supposing it to be a formal proposal which, in his paternal anxiety, he had carefully been looking for, approached with the intention of clinching theBilly no chance of escape So convinced was he of this, that, without asking to look at the paper, he grasped Billy's hand
”My dear fellow,” he exclairatulate you on your success and good taste She will make you an admirable wife; and you will prove, I am sure, an affectionate husband
I accept your offer onand that of Mrs Bubsby”
”But I have not ht offer,” answered Billy