p over all. Now they wave their neckcloths--they beckon us to use
haste. High water is drawing fast on, and what man ever lived on the
Wolfstone in a spring flood. They wave again; sing away there, my lads,
cheerily!" and a tumultuous shout of human voices again mingled with the
blast.

Almost every eye was now cast out for the Dasher, and she was seen
pulling with great difficulty--for a handkerchief of canvass would have
been madness--towards the shelter of a projecting mass of rock, in Carne
Cove, in the comparatively smooth water behind which, Helston and myself
were enabled with some difficulty to get aboard. It was a moment of some
excitement. Accustomed from childhood fearlessly to brave an element
they might truly call their own, the gallant little crew steadily seated
themselves, and taking off their hats manfully answered the encouraging
cheers from aloft. The men now shipped their oars, and all having been
made snug, I seated myself in the stern-sheets, near Helston, who had
taken the helm. There was something fine in his weather-beaten
countenance, and grey hair streaming in the breeze, as he steadily
scanned the dark masses of the distant Wolf-stone--he was a true seaman.

The Dasher was a boat that would live in almost any weather on this
coast, head to wind; but when she was put about, there was no little
danger of her being pooped in a heavy following sea. Ours was now the
former case, and as the crew put her through the contending sea, which
at every stroke hit our bows and soaked us with spray, I anxiously
consulted with Helston on the best means of shipping the captives on
making the Wolf-stone. Keeping his eye fixed on the rock, which was
grimly visible on our larboard bow, he shook his head as the portentous
darkness of the sky again claimed our attention. "If we had been delayed
a quarter of an hour longer they would have been food for fishes;" I
remarked, "but it will be close run; our men are doing all that strength
and skill can do, but it avails little when opposed to such a power as
this."

"Never fear, sir, we shall do yet--you are not so cool as I--how should
you? when I have braved the storms of nearly sixty winters:--but the
Wolf-stone's a spot, I will frankly confess, with which I had rather
make acquaintance with a clearer sky and a flowing sheet, than on such a
night as this. Just give a look-out a-head, sir," he added, as we were
mounting a heavy sea, "and tell me how things are alof