before she drives on shore."

"At all events, I will tell my brother and Mr Hallton. It will be
wrong to let them remain longer in ignorance of the danger we are in.
Perhaps we ought to set the captain at liberty."

"No, no, sir; let him stay until the last, we don't know what mad things
he will do if he comes on deck. Perhaps he will be shooting the mate or
one of us. It will be time enough to let him out of the cabin when all
chance of saving the ship is gone."

I saw at once the prudence of this, and settled to act accordingly.
Taking an opportunity, I slipped below, and found Charley and Mr
Hallton asleep. Having roused them up, "I have not got very pleasant
information to give you," I said; and I then told them that Tubbs
considered the ship would drive on shore in less than half an hour.

Mr Hallton, though supposed to be a brave man, was much more agitated
than was Charley.

"The ship cast on this abominable coast in less than half an hour!" he
exclaimed. "Why, even down here, the sound of the breakers reaches us."

"Well, Dick, if the worst comes to the worst, we must have a struggle
for life," said my brother calmly. "You stick to me, and I'll do my
best to help you. I am well accustomed to the sort of work we shall
have to go through, and I hope that we shall manage somehow or other to
get on shore." Of course, they were both unwilling to remain longer
below, and as neither the mate nor the crew were likely to interfere,
they made up their minds to come on deck with me. I had some hopes that
Mr Hallton, who was a first-rate seaman, might devise some means for
escaping. I first consulted Charley about setting the captain at
liberty, but he thought that it would not be prudent to do so until the
last moment, when it would be right to give him a chance of saving his
life with the rest of us. We soon gained the deck. Whether Charley or
the lieutenant were observed, I could not tell. I waited anxiously to
hear what opinion Mr Hallton might offer as to the state of affairs.

"If we get much nearer the shore, we must bring up, and perhaps the
anchor will hold until the wind moderates. It is the only chance we
have of saving the ship. If we were to go about now, we might miss
stays, and there is not room to weal without getting perilously close to
the breakers," he observed.

At the rate we were sailing, we must have gone over thirty or forty
miles from the point where we exchanged signals with