Part 8 (1/2)
”Still, she didn't long keep on that course The firsther to, nor did a second, but when a third went unpleasantly close, right through her broad lug-sail, we could see her come up to the wind sharp, while a fourth shot, whichsent to show those on board that we meant business and would be obeyed, caused her heavy yard to be dropped by the run in token of surrender
”We had a long pull yet to coside we found it had been all labour for nothing There was not the ghost of a slave aboard, nor any signs neither of her having carried any recently
She was only a trading dhoith a lot of Banians taking goods from the mainland to the islands; and so we had had all our chase for nothing
Well, the men were so vexed that they would have liked to have scuttled her I was glad I hadn't suggested their taking to the oars, or perhaps theythem toil so when it wasn't necessary; but of course I wasn't to bla no authority to stop her, I was obliged to let the dhow proceed on her hile we lay-to for the night in a sheltered creek under the lee of Saint Juan; for it was now getting dark, and the navigation being rather treacherous with a lot of coral reefs about, I thought it best to wait for daylight before we did any ht, I anchored the pinnace about a cable's-length off the beach, where ere pretty secure fro the other way Towards ly, and as the boat rocked uneasily I hauled up the kedge again, for it was bad holding ground, the tackle chafing against the coral banks and sawing away in a manner that proer, the boat's head bobbing down and up every ith a jerk thatthe mainsail reefed, and a small storm-staysail forwards, we ran before the wind, which had now increased to a gale, blowing stiffly, as it had done in the early part of the day before, fro to lay-to in the open sea, for the rollers were too heavy for the boat to ride over, so we bore right away across the channel towards the north part of Madagascar, having a clear space of water in front of us with no chance of running ashore, for the next twenty-four hours or so at all events, if we kept on to the sa us to The pinnace being a good sea-boat, ere all right otherwise, that was, unless the gale shi+fted, ould be driven back on to the rocky reef which encircled the Coo to pieces there
”'Let her drive,' said I to theout the occasional seas that ca as she keeps on running like this we can coets waterlogged she'll founder and then we'll all be lost'
”This hpull they had had in the afternoon after the dhow, and when h the tornado showed no appearance of slackening, and ere quite out of sight of land, nothing but sky and sea being around us, and the waves rolling that high as they followed in our wake that if we had not scudded on ould have been swa ahead, for we could not stop, or wear the boat round, or do anything but sio where the wind chose to take her We could not even lower the ht have capsized her, besides which, as long as it held out without being bloay, although it almost made the pinnace bury her nose in the waves in front, it prevented the following rollers behind froh on her to be out of their reach But, it was a perilous run of it, and every big comber that raced after us looked as if it would overtake our tiny craft and swamp her!
”By about four o'clock in the afternoon, as near as we could reckon, we sighted the highlands of Madagascar, for it couldn't be any other coast froht The land was right ahead and so it rapidly as we did, it e to steer inside the reef that lay outside the shore of the island, the saainst the cliffs It onderful to think we had run all that distance in less than twenty-four hours
”Hoe did it I'm sure I can't tell, but I believe in addition to the force of the wind, that must have driven us at the rate of twenty knots an hour,easterly current in the Mozambique Channel with the south-west monsoon, and this must have carried us so speedily across from the Comoro Islands I can't account for it otherwise
”Be that as it ascar now before us, with the pinnace closing in with the land every second, see; soon, too, we could distinguish the noise of breakers, which grew everyrapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly power could save the boat fro dashed to pieces
”However, there was a power above watching over us
”Presently I noticed froan, which I well knew froe I had made round the island in a cruiser the year before when I came out to join the _London_, and I recollected that this headland ran out into the sea in a north-westerly point, so that, if we could contrive to get the boat to leeward of the cape, ould soon be in comparatively still water and protected alike fro out to thean, I told Adams, as in the centre of the boat now, to loay thethe others at the same time to pull with a will, as their lives depended on our rounding the pro to be hurled as we ca over us!
”This plan fortunately succeeded, for in anotherwhich I held my breath in suspense, ere round the cape and in still water, although close to a coral reef that girdled the land, which was still some three miles off We really were safe for the tih at our escape; but I saw that the haven could only be of temporary assistance to us, for should the wind shi+ft more to the northwards ould even be in a worse position than when scudding before the gale, as the reef would then be iale in our face
”It would serve no good, however, to meet evil half-way, so as theeaten nothing since dinner the day before the stor theood sleep in the botto, having had less exertion than any of the a rest as that Towards ht--it seemed indeed as if all our ed her anchor and drifted on to the reef, when I had to rouse all hands to juain before she knocked a hole in her bottoain than the wind veered round, just as I had fancied it would do, without the slightest warning, to the northward
”This of course rendered it ier under the lee of the cliff, our anchorage there being now untenable; and, putting out to sea again, we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale in the offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail, so as not to be in too close proxierous to us now
”Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the stor rolling in heavier and more heavily each hour, the poor pinnace sank below the surface of the sea in twenty-five fatho for our lives some seven miles away from shore”
”That ly
”It ful,” replied Ben gravely ”I can hardly bear to tell of it now”
VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR