ked
up to about south-by-east, and thence, undulating slightly a point or so
east or west, trended south for the remainder of its length. Now, there
were two or three short reaches of channel, the longest of them not much
more than a mile in length, where we should find the wind shy enough to
necessitate the ship being braced sharp up on the port tack to enable
her to negotiate them successfully. But it was necessary for one of us
to be aloft to con the ship, and as it was obvious that the other two
could not brace round the yards of a ship of the _Mercury's_ size, we
were no sooner free of our anchor than, although the ship was at the
moment running off square before the wind, we sprang to the braces, and
braced the yards sharp up on the port tack, in readiness for the
negotiation of the reaches of which I have spoken. For, while the ship
would run before the wind with her yards braced sharp up, she would not
sail close-hauled with her yards square; and we had therefore settled it
that the proper thing to do was to provide for the difficult points at
once. By the time that this was done we were so close to the western
extremity of the basin, and the entrance of the channel, that it became
necessary for me to jump aloft at once, while Gurney relieved Grace
Hartley at the wheel, and Saunders stood in the waist, with his eye on
me in the fore topmast crosstrees, ready to pass the word from me to the
helmsman, from whom I was hidden by the main and mizen topsails.

I am bound to admit that when I reached the crosstrees, and noted the
speed with which the ship was sliding along in that perfectly smooth
water, under the impulsion of a fine brisk easterly breeze, and observed
the narrowness and tortuousness of the channel that we had to traverse,
winding hither and thither through that vast expanse of reef, my heart
almost quailed within me, and I felt inclined to doubt whether we three
males possessed the ability, the skill, the quickness of eye, the
readiness and strength of hand, to take the ship in safety through that
apparently endless, twisting channel. But the feeling was merely
momentary; an old adage flashed into my mind to the effect that one need
never trouble about crossing a bridge until one comes to it; also that
it is very unwise to meet troubles halfway. I told myself that I would
not worry about the difficulties and dangers ahead, but would stand up
there in the crosstrees and deal with them, one at a ti