t once, as she lay rolling and jerking at her mooring cable, the
distance between her bows and the huge ringed cask seemed to have grown
greater, and from where Rodd stood he could see the glistening
tarpaulins of her crew as they hurried forward in a cluster, and Captain
Chubb bellowed an order from where he stood astern, to his men.

"Aren't coming aboard of us, are they?" thought Rodd, as, heard above
the wind during a comparative lull, Captain Chubb was roaring out fresh
orders to his crew; for he had fully grasped the danger, and the men
were ready to slip their cable moorings and glide farther in under bare
poles.

But fortunately this fresh disaster did not come to pass, for as the
brig bore down upon them there was a rush and splash from her bows, an
anchor went down, checking her progress a little, then a little more, as
she still came on nearer as if to come crash into the schooner's bows,
and Captain Chubb raised his speaking trumpet to his lips to bid his men
let go, prior to ordering them to stand by ready to lower their own
anchor in turn when at a safe distance, when the brig's progress
received a sudden check, her anchor held, and she was brought up short
not many yards away.

"Smart," said Captain Chubb, "for a mounseer;" and he looked at Rodd as
he spoke, before tucking his speaking trumpet under his arm and then
giving himself a shake like a huge yellow Newfoundland dog to get rid of
the superabundant moisture. "Well, squire," he continued, as he came
close up, "what should you do next?"

Rodd looked at him as if puzzled by the question. Then putting his
hands to his mouth he shouted back--

"I should get farther into the harbour, in case that brig broke away
again."

"Of course you would," said the captain, with a grim smile. "Now, don't
you pretend again that you aren't a sailor, because that was spoken like
a good first mate. But we will wait for a lull before we let go, for I
don't want to lose no tackle. But the gale aren't over yet."

"But we are safe, captain?" said the boy.

"Yes," grunted the captain. "Better off than them yonder," and he
pointed to a good-sized vessel which had been running for the harbour,
but in vain, for she had been carried on too far and was swept away, to
take the shore a mile distant.

The lull foretold by Captain Chubb enabled him to slip from his moorings
and get the schooner into a sheltered position which he deemed
sufficiently snug and far enough