ide of her, over which the sea burst in
clouds of foam. Gascoyne still stood at the wheel, guiding the vessel
with consummate skill and daring, while the men looked on in awe and in
breathless expectation, quite regardless of the shot which flew around
them and altogether absorbed by the superior danger by which they were
menaced.

The surface of the sea was so universally white, that there was no line
of dark water to guide the pirate captain on his bold and desperate
course. He was obliged to trust almost entirely to his intimate
knowledge of the coast, and to the occasional patches in the surrounding
waste where the comparative flatness of the boiling flood indicated less
shallow water. As the danger increased, the smile left Gascoyne's lips,
but the flashing of his bright eyes and his deepened colour shewed that
the spirit boiled within, almost as wildly as the ocean raged around
him.

The centre of the shoal was gained, and a feeling of hope and exultation
began to rise in the breasts of the crew when a terrific shock caused
the little schooner to quiver from stem to stern, while an involuntary
cry burst from the men, many of whom were thrown violently on the deck.
At the same time a shot from the _Talisman_ came in through the stern
bulwarks, struck the wheel and carried it away with part of the tackle
attached to the tiller.

"Another leap like that, lass, and you're over," cried Gascoyne, with a
light smile, as he sprang to the iron tiller, and, seizing it with his
strong hands, steered the schooner as if she had been a boat.

"Get new tackle rove, Scraggs," said he, cheerfully, "I'll keep her
straight for Eel's Gate with _this_. That was the first bar of the
gate--there are only two altogether, and the second won't be so bad."

As the captain spoke, the schooner seemed to recover from the shock and
again rushed forward on her foaming course; but before the men had time
to breathe, she struck again--this time less violently, as had been
predicted--and the next wave, lifting her over the shoal, launched her
into deep water.

"There, that will do," said Gascoyne, resigning the helm to Scraggs.
"You can keep her as she goes; there's plenty of water now and no fear
of that big bully following us. Meanwhile, I will go below and see to
the welfare of our passengers."

Gascoyne was wrong in supposing that the _Talisman_ would not follow.
She could not, indeed, follow in the same course, but the moment that