he should
shrink from any ordeal, however difficult.

But there was a peculiarly trying spot to be passed just at the inner
extremity of the channel, and the ship would probably reach it on her
next board. It behoved Ned, therefore, to dismiss from his mind all
thoughts not strictly appertaining to the business in hand; and, like
the sensible, practical fellow he was, he did so. Standing on a hen-
coop, with one hand lightly grasping the mizen-topmast backstay, he
sought and soon found the spot, which he carefully watched until he
considered that the ship had run far enough to reach it on the next
tack. He then gave the word "Ready about!" and immediately tacked the
ship. The exceeding awkwardness of the passage consisted in the fact
that, at the particular point referred to, the channel through the reef
for a length of about sixteen hundred feet was only about three hundred
feet wide, whilst its direction was dead in the wind's eye as it then
blew. Hence it was quite impossible to work the ship through this
narrow "gut" in the ordinary way. Two small coves of unbroken--and
therefore deep--water had been discovered on the north side of this
narrow passage during the preliminary exploration; but they trended in
the wrong direction and were so very narrow that Williams, on seeing
them, at once declared them useless for all practical purposes. Ned,
however, thought differently, and it was indeed upon the existence of
these two indentations that he based his hope of success in an effort
that, under other circumstances, it would have been sheer madness to
attempt.

The ship tacked with the same admirable precision as before, and on
gathering way was found to be looking well up for the entrance to the
narrow channel. The distance to be traversed was no great matter, and
Ned consequently kept all hands at their stations; but the anxious looks
which they cast, first at him and next at the formidable barrier of
rocks to leeward, showed plainly enough how completely puzzled they were
as to the manner in which Ned was to deal with the difficulty which
faced him. In less than five minutes from the moment of tacking the
ship reached the opening, and as she glided across the narrow channel
Ned signed to Williams to put the helm gradually down. The result was
that the ship shot easily up into the wind; and the moment that all her
canvas was a-shiver Ned ordered the helm amidships. This manoeuvre
caused the ship to shoot f