e the land to kep the wind off us, and that
stoneyard on our lee. Well, we're in for it now, and may as well crack
on."

With that he gave an order to the steersman, and sent Riach to the
foretop. There were only five men on deck, counting the officers; these
being all that were fit (or, at least, both fit and willing) for their
work. So, as I say, it fell to Mr. Riach to go aloft, and he sat there
looking out and hailing the deck with news of all he saw.

"The sea to the south is thick," he cried; and then, after a while, "it
does seem clearer in by the land."

"Well, sir," said Hoseason to Alan, "we'll try your way of it. But I
think I might as well trust to a blind fiddler. Pray God you're right."

"Pray God I am!" says Alan to me. "But where did I hear it? Well, well,
it will be as it must."

As we got nearer to the turn of the land the reefs began to be sown here
and there on our very path; and Mr. Riach sometimes cried down to us to
change the course. Sometimes, indeed, none too soon; for one reef was so
close on the brig's weather-board that when a sea burst upon it the
lighter sprays fell upon her deck and wetted us like rain.

The brightness of the night showed us these perils as clearly as by day,
which was, perhaps, the more alarming. It showed me, too, the face of
the captain as he stood by the steersman, now on one foot, now on the
other, and sometimes blowing in his hands, but still listening and
looking and as steady as steel. Neither he nor Mr. Riach had shown well
in the fighting, but I saw they were brave in their own trade, and
admired them all the more because I found Alan very white.

"Ochone, David," says he, "this is no' the kind of death I fancy!"

"What, Alan!" I cried, "you're not afraid?"

"No," said he, wetting his lips, "but you'll allow yourself it's a cold
ending."

By this time, now and then sheering to one side or the other to avoid a
reef, but still hugging the wind and the land, we had got round Iona and
begun to come alongside Mull. The tide at the tail of the land ran very
strong, and threw the brig about. Two hands were put to the helm, and
Hoseason himself would sometimes lend a help; and it was strange to see
three strong men throw their weight upon the tiller, and it (like a
living thing) struggle against and drive them back. This would have been
the greater danger had not the sea been for some while free of
obstacles. Mr. Riach, besides, announced from the top that he