ook off his jacket, and then dragged
the jersey shirt he wore over his head. Kneeling in the bottom of the
boat, he proceeded to stuff the worsted garment into a jagged hole,
through which the clear water came bubbling up like some spring.

Mike had glanced at the bubbling water once, and shuddered slightly; but
he did not speak then, for there was a great rock right in front,
towards which the boat was rushing, with the sail well-filled, and
having the leeward gunwale low down by the surface.

But Mike did not even wince. The current was racing them along, while
the wind was fresher now, and as the boy pressed down the blade of the
oar he could feel that the boat was fully under his control--that it was
like some great fish of which he was the tail, and that he had only to
give one good stroke with the oar blade to send the prow to right or
left as he willed.

And, as Vince patted and stuffed the woollen jersey as tightly as he
could into the place where the water rushed up, Mike sat fast, till with
a rush they glided by the dangerous rock, and the boy strained his eyes
to catch the next danger.

Nothing was very near, and he spoke.

"Will she sink, Cinder?" he said; and it seemed a long time, in his
terrible anxiety, before his companion spoke.

"No. There's a lot of water in, but if you can look out and steer, I
can hold the sheet and bale."

He handed the sheet to Mike, crept forward, opened the locker in the
bows, and took out an old tin pot kept for the purpose, crept back and
took the sheet again, as he knelt down in the water and began to bale,
scooping it up, and sending it flying over the side, but without seeming
to make much impression.

"Another rock," said Mike.

"All right; you know how to pass it," said Vince, without ceasing his
work, but sending the water flying to leeward; and for the next quarter
of an hour he did not cease--not even turning his head when they went
dangerously near rock after rock.

It was only when, with a deep, catching sigh, Mike said that the current
did not seem so strong, that he looked up and saw that the rocky point
of the island was nearly a couple of miles away.

"Which way shall I steer?" said Mike; and Vince stood up to take in
their position.

"If we go round the point with the tide we shall have to fight against
the wind and the current that sets along the west shore," he said.
"That won't do. We must go back the way we came."

"What, against that m