probable--or that the ship was very
slowly sliding off the bank. So I cried to the men, who had desisted
from their efforts for fear of parting the hawser:

"There she gives! Heave away again, lads, and keep a steady strain on
the hawser. It wants half an hour yet to high-water."

The men again threw their weight alternately upon the levers, and once
more the great pawl clanked once, twice, thrice; then a long pause and
another clank, then a further pause. But my foot was still on the
hawser, and I felt that it was steadily, although very slowly, yielding,
and there was a moment when I could almost have sworn that I felt the
ship jerk ever so slightly sternward. So I ventured to stimulate the
men a little further.

"Hurrah, lads," I cried, "there she moves! Hang to her! One complete
turn of the windlass and she's all your own! Heave again."

"Heave!" responded the men hoarsely, flinging their whole weight upon
the elevated lever, while those opposite grasped the corresponding
depressed handle, and, gripping the deck with their naked toes, bent
their backs and bore upward until every muscle in their straining bodies
cracked again; and "clank-clank" spoke the pawl again, and yet again
"clank". Then, after another long, heaving and straining pause, "clank"
again, a shorter pause and again "clank--clank--clank"; and then, as the
men struggled and fought desperately with the stubborn windlass, the
ship jerked perceptibly twice, the pawls spoke in quicker succession,
the ship surged again, and with a wild hurrah from the men, as the
levers suddenly yielded to them and began to leap rapidly up and down,
the _Indian Queen_ gathered way and slid off into deep-water.

"Well there with the windlass!" cried Carter delightedly. "Let go your
to'gallant and topsail halyards and sheets; man your clewlines; fore and
main clew-garnets. Stand by to let go the anchor!"

"Ay, ay, sir!" was the response from the topgallant forecastle. "All
ready with the anchor. Stand clear of the cable!"

Meanwhile the merchant crew were clewing up and hauling down to the
accompaniment of the usual cries. What, therefore, with Carter's
commands, the seaman's calls, and the violent flinging down of ropes
upon the deck, there was a very considerable uproar going on upon deck,
and I was not at all surprised when the general, clad in a dressing-
gown, emerged from below with his sword in one hand and his pistol in
the other, to enquire what