"

"That's right, McCarthy, we've no time to lose. Send one of the hands
forwards to see how her head lies."

"Aye, aye, sorr. Mr Adams has gone already sure: an' I've sint the
carpenter, Boltrope, to sound the well."

"He'd better by far sound alongside, to see what depth of water we're in
and which would be the best side for launching the boats off!" replied
Captain Dinks. "But stay, Harness," he added, "you can do that. Heave
the lead aft here, and then amidships, telling me what soundings you
get."

On returning from his mission forwards, Mr Adams reported that the
vessel's bows were fixed hard and fast between two conical points of
rock, which were covered by about four fathoms of water; while Frank
Harness, who had been sounding round the ship as the captain directed,
stated that there were twenty fathoms of water aft and the same on the
port side amidships, but on the starboard, or right-hand side, the lead
only gave the same depth the second mate had found forward--
consequently, the ship's stern, being so much lighter than the flooded
fore-compartment, had slewed round with the sea towards the reef, on
which therefore the _Nancy Bell_ must have projected herself more than
half her length. Probably, had her bows not been so depressed, she
would have gone over it altogether with a scrape, merely taking off her
false keel and dead-wood without doing any material damage.

As it was, however, there she was; and the question now was whether the
tide was at the ebb or flow at the time she struck. If the former, the
likelihood was that as soon as the tide began to rise, the vessel would
float off and founder, Boltrope having reported that there were eight
feet of water in the hold and that it was gaining fast--the pumping
operations, of course, having long since been stopped, but, should she
have run on the reef at high water, there she was immovably fixed as
long as she held together; and in that case they would be able to get
ashore to the mainland in comfort, almost at their own convenience,
should the weather remain calm, in addition to saving many articles from
the wreck that would be of use to them, and a much larger proportion of
the ship's provisions and stores.

After the first bumping and scraping that had immediately succeeded her
stranding, the _Nancy Bell_ had remained quiet, as if the old ship was
glad to be at rest after all the buffeting about and bruisings she had
received from the boister