; the lieutenant was on the forecastle; the
boatswain by the helm. The sea seemed propitiously calm and, as it
swelled gently to and fro, lifted the ship several times.

"Now, my boys," said Curtis in his calm clear voice, "all together!
Off!"

Round went the windlass; click, click, clanked the chains as link by
link they were forced through the hawse-holes.

The breeze freshened, and the masts gave to the pressure of the sails,
but round and round we went, keeping time in regular monotony to the
sing-song tune hummed by one of the sailors.

We had gained about twenty feet, and were redoubling our efforts when
the ship grounded again.

And now no effort would avail; all was in vain; the tide began to turn;
and the "Chancellor" would not advance an inch. Was there time to go
back? She would inevitably go to pieces if left balanced upon the ridge.
In an instant the captain has ordered the sails to be furled, and the
anchor dropped from the stern.

One moment of terrible anxiety, and all is well.

The "Chancellor" tacks to stern, and glides back into the basin, which
is once more her prison.

"Well, captain," says the boatswain, "what's to be done now?"

"I don't know" said Curtis, "but we shall get across somehow."

CHAPTER XXI.

NOVEMBER 21st to 24th.--There was assuredly no time to be lost before we
ought to leave Ham Rock reef. The barometer had been falling ever since
the morning, the sea was getting rougher, and there was every symptom
that the weather, hitherto so favourable, was on the point of breaking;
and in the event of a gale the "Chancellor" must inevitably be dashed to
pieces on the rocks.

In the evening, when the tide was quite low, and the rocks uncovered,
Curtis, the boatswain, and Dowlas went to examine the ridge which had
proved so serious an obstruction, Falsten and I accompanied them. We
came to the conclusion that the only way of effecting a passage was by
cutting away the rocks with pikes over a surface measuring ten feet by
six. An extra depth of nine or ten inches would give a sufficient gauge,
and the channel might be accurately marked out by buoys; in this way it
was conjectured the ship might be got over the ridge and so reach the
deep water beyond.

"But this basalt is as hard as granite," said the boatswain; "besides,
we can only get at it at low water, and consequently could only work at
it for two hours out of the twenty-four."

"All the more reason why we should begi