the tops
bending before the blast. Ever and anon huge boughs were torn off, and
several fell, sometimes in front, sometimes directly behind them, but no
one had been struck. Then there came a fearful crash. A large tree had
fallen directly in front of them. Jack thought that the colonel had
been crushed; but no, there he was, sitting his horse as upright as
ever. He had had a narrow escape, though.

"On, friends, on," he shouted. "It is more hazardous to stop than to
push forward."

And he leapt his steed over the trunk. Captain Hemming and Murray
followed, their horses scrambling rather than leaping over the
impediment. Jack and Adair might have done the same, but they would not
desert the commander of the _Tudor_, by this time well-nigh frightened
out of his wits. Several of the rest who made the attempt toppled over
with their beasts on their heads.

"Leap, my good fellows? I could no more do it than fly!" exclaimed
Commander Babbicome, when he came to the tree.

"You had better climb over, and I'll bring your horse after you," said
Jack.

"If I get off, I shall never get on again," cried the commander. "Bless
my heart, what shall I do?"

"Better try than run the chance of being crushed here," said Jack.

At that moment another of the waving trees came crashing down close
behind them, cutting off all retreat had it been contemplated. At the
sound off tumbled Commander Babbicome; and in another instant, with more
agility than he generally displayed, he had scrambled over the trunk,
and pitched right in among the men and horses, struggling to get on
their legs on the other side. Happily no one was much hurt, and some of
his officers having assisted to place him on his feet, he set off
running as fast as his legs could carry him. His steed, relieved of its
burden, urged by Jack and Terence, got over better than the rest; and
when they at length overtook him, they managed to hoist him again into
his saddle. Though he cut a somewhat undignified figure on this
occasion they had no inclination to laugh at him, for they believed him
to be as brave as most men under ordinary circumstances on the deck of
his ship. They were both, too, very anxious about Tom and Gerald, and
they could only hope that if the drogher had not returned she was safe
in some other port. Battered and bruised, though they had escaped any
serious accident, the party at length reached the harbour. The officers
who had remained b