captured, for
they stood about a hundred chances to one of losing the ship. Each
squall that swept down upon them was harder than the one before. Each
time the vessel almost went over on her beam ends, for Morgan would not
luff until the last moment, since each time that he did so and lost way
temporarily he found himself driven bodily nearer the land. The men
would have mutinied had it not been patent to the most stupid mind that
their only salvation lay in Morgan. Never had that despicable villain
appeared to better advantage than when he stood on the weather quarter
overlooking the ship, his long gray hair blown out in the wind,
fighting against a foe whose strength was not to be measured by the mind
of man, for his life and his ship.

Hornigold and Teach, grasping the wheel assisted by two of the ablest
seamen, were steering the ship with exquisite precision. Sweat poured
from their brows at the violence of the labor required to control the
massive helm. The men lay to windward on the deck, or grouped in
clusters around the masts, or hung to the life lines which had been
passed in every direction. At Morgan's side stood Velsers and Raveneau,
prime seamen both.

"What think ye, gentlemen?" asked Morgan, at last pointing to the point
looming fearfully close ahead of them. "Can we weather it?"

"Never!" answered de Lussan, shaking his head. "Well, it has been a
short cruise and a merry one. Pity to lose our freightage and lives."

"And you, Velsers?"

"No," said the German, "it can't be done. Why did we ever come to this
cursed coast?"

"Avast that!" cried Morgan, thinking quickly. "Gentlemen, we'll
club-haul the ship."

"The water's too deep, my captain, to give holding ground to the
anchor," urged Raveneau shrugging his shoulders.

"It shoals yonder, I think," answered Morgan. "We'll hold on until the
last minute and then try."

"'Tis wasted labor," growled Velsers.

"And certain death to hold on," added the Frenchman.

"Have you anything else to propose, sirs?" asked Morgan sharply. "We
can't tack ship against this wind and sea. There's no room to wear.
What's to do?"

The men made no answer.

"Forward there!" cried the old buccaneer, and it was astonishing the
force and power with which he made himself heard in spite of the roar of
the wind and the smash of the sea. "Get the lee anchor off the bows
there! L'Ollonois?"

"Ay, ay."

"Run a hawser from the anchor in aft here on the quarter. We'll