"Under-tow!" he repeated; "who the devil ever heard of saving a vessel
from going ashore by the under-tow?"

"This may never happen on the ocean, sir," Jasper answered modestly;
"but we have known it to happen here."

"The lad is right, brother," put in the Sergeant; "for, though I do not
well understand it, I have often heard the sailors of the lake speak of
such a thing. We shall do well to trust to Jasper in this strait."

Cap grumbled and swore; but, as there was no remedy, he was compelled to
acquiesce. Jasper, being now called on to explain what he meant by the
under-tow, gave this account of the matter. The water that was driven up
on the shore by the gale was necessarily compelled to find its level by
returning to the lake by some secret channels. This could not be done on
the surface, where both wind and waves were constantly urging it towards
the land, and it necessarily formed a sort of lower eddy, by means of
which it flowed back again to its ancient and proper bed. This inferior
current had received the name of the under-tow, and, as it would
necessarily act on the bottom of a vessel which drew as much water
as the _Scud_, Jasper trusted to the aid of this reaction to keep his
cables from parting. In short, the upper and lower currents would, in a
manner, counteract each other.

Simple and ingenious as was this theory, however, as yet there was
little evidence of its being reduced to practice. The drift continued;
though, as the kedges and hawsers with which the anchors were backed
took the strains, it became sensibly less. At length the man at the lead
announced the joyful intelligence that the anchors had ceased to drag,
and that the vessel had brought up! At this precise moment the first
line of breakers was about a hundred feet astern of the _Scud_, even
appearing to approach much nearer as the foam vanished and returned on
the raging surges. Jasper sprang forward, and, casting a glance over
the bows, he smiled in triumph, as he pointed exultingly to the cables.
Instead of resembling bars of iron in rigidity, as before, they were
curving downwards, and to a seaman's senses it was evident that the
cutter rose and fell on the seas as they came in with the ease of a
ship in a tides-way, when the power of the wind is relieved by the
counteracting pressure of the water.

"'Tis the under-tow!" he exclaimed with delight, fairly bounding along
the deck to steady the helm, in order that the cutter might ride