t, the
weather-lift and brace being hauled taut, the sail stood like a board.

With this sail she carried too much lee helm, and it was difficult work
for the helmsman to lift her, so as to let her rise over the seas, which
now came one after the other in quick succession, rushing up her bows,
and threatening to curl bodily over her bulwarks.

"Now, my lads, aft here, and shake a reef out of the fore-and-aft
mainsail."

Led by the mate, the men sprung aft, the points were soon cast off, and
the reef-pendant eased off. The throat and peak halyards were manned,
the main-sheet was slightly eased off, and the sail, thus enlarged, was
hoisted to the mast. The instant effect was to make her carry a
weather-helm, and great care was now required to prevent her flying up
into the wind, and being taken aback; a most perilous position to be
placed in under the present circumstances.

To prevent this, the fore-stay-sail was hoisted. As the master watched
the effect of all the canvas he had packed on the brig, he saw clearly
that she would not bear another stitch; indeed, she had already very
much more set than under any but the most extraordinary circumstances he
would have ventured to carry. He, however, felt that he could do more
with her than could any stranger. He knew that every timber and plank
in her was sound, every spar had been well proved, and the canvas was
all new, and every inch of rigging about her he or his mate had seen
fitted and turned in. He knew, indeed, that all was good, and it was
this feeling, with a right confidence in his own knowledge and judgment,
which gave him courage on this trying occasion.

Onward the brig tore through the foaming waves, her lee-scuppers
completely under water. Now a dark sea would appear right a-head,
seemingly about to overwhelm her, but buoyantly her bow would rise to
it, the foam on its summit alone sweeping over her; then another would
come of less height, and, as if disdaining to surmount it, she would
cleave her way through it, while her decks were deluged as a punishment
for her audacity. Nearly everything on deck had been properly secured,
and such trifling articles as were not, were soon washed into the
lee-scuppers or overboard. The crew, driven from forward, were huddled
together close to the break of the poop, under shelter of the
weather-bulwark, while Bowse and the first mate stood at their old post.

"It's as much as she'll carry," said Timmins.

He