down!"

This was done, the heavy stream anchor, which was always kept ready on
the forecastle in case of any such emergency, being eased down by means
of its shank painter and the fish tackle until it rested comfortably
across the sternsheets of the boat; while another stout hawser
accompanying it, was coiled round the whole interior of the boat on top
of the thwarts.

The cutter then pulled off to about the same distance at which the kedge
had been dropped, though more on the quarter of the brig than dead aft;
and, the end of the second hawser being brought aboard like the first,
all hands set to work with a cheery song, as we had no drum and fife
band with us in the brig--for, though not strictly according to naval
discipline, the commander permitted the licence so as to make the
fellows move round all the smarter.

"Yo--ho, my lads!" bawled out old Jellybelly, quite in his element, I
believe, as he liked to hear his own voice. "Round she comes! Heave
and paul with a yo--heave--ho!"

"By jingo, she's moving!" Mr Gadgett quivered out, more excited than I
had ever seen the grey-haired gunner before. "Another turn or two, my
lads, and she'll be afloat!"

His excitement communicated itself to the commander aft, who was looking
over the stern and anxiously watching the water, to see if our rudder,
which was kept amidships, made any ripple on the surface; though, wide
awake, our officer was keeping a keen eye, too, on the manilla hawser
attached to the stream anchor, which was in such a ticklish state of
tension from the strain that it was singing out like a fiddle-string.

"Hurrah!" he cried a moment after. "She _is_ moving, Mr Gadgett.
Stand by there, furrud, to veer off the cable of the port bower!"

Tramp, tramp, went the fellows round the capstan; turn by turn, in came
the slack of the warp; and then in another five minutes or so, with a
harsh grating sound as her keel slid off a rocky bit of the shoal on
which she had rested, the gallant little _Martin_ was afloat again!

Almost at the same instant as the dancing motion of her hull told us
that the brig had been restored to her native element, the commander,
wishing to get away as soon as he could from the dangerous neighbourhood
of the Brambles, gave an order to the boatswain's mate standing near
him, who instantly put his whistle to his lips and blew a shrill call
whose import we all well knew.

"Watch, make sail!" then shouted the commander, rubbing