Meanwhile huge billows of green water poured on board, thumping the ship till every timber quivered. Then one immense wave curled right over her and smashed her decks like an egg-shell. Immediately all was confusion. Shouts occasionally reached Phil's ear, and he once caught sight of the grey-headed old captain kneeling in prayer. A moment later another wave turned the unfortunate _Columbine_ completely over, and, filling at once, she sank like a stone. Phil felt as though he was being smothered. The din of rushing water rang in his ears, and intense darkness surrounded him. He fought and kicked madly. Then something struck him sharply on the head, and he grasped the grating to which he was tied, and with an effort dragged himself upon it. Close alongside was the other grating, and upon it, clinging with all his might, was Tony. And thus, side by side, one now dancing on the summit of a wave, while the other hung in the trough, drenched with water of icy coldness and almost smothered by the surf and rain, they drifted fast towards those inhospitable black cliffs against which the tempest thundered. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. SAVED FROM THE DEEP. More than an hour of misery and terror passed as Tony and Phil clung, half-submerged, to their gratings, and as they held on, the sound of huge waves, breaking upon the iron-bound coast to which they were fast approaching, grew louder. Phil pulled upon the rope which kept their fragile rafts together and shortened it, bringing them close alongside one another. "Good-bye, old man!" he shouted, between two gusts of wind. Tony's mouth opened and he bellowed something, but the words were carried away on the gale. Conversation, even by shouting, being hopeless, they once more fell into despairing silence. "What has happened?" cried Phil half an hour later. "We seem to have left the crash of waves on the cliff behind us, and already the sea seems to be going down." Tony crept closer. "The wind ain't going down," he shouted hoarsely. "It's blowing stronger if anything, and though we lies low in the water, we're bowling along in fine style. Can't make it out, mate; this sea going down looks as if we'd been washed into some sheltered cove. Anyway we shall know soon," and he jerked his arm to the right, where already the black clouds were lifting. Half an hour passed, when Phil suddenly caught sight of high cliffs to right and left, while on the summit of one of them seemed to be a fort, for the white masonry was distinctly visible. He stared through the gloom and sweeping sheets of spray, and thought he detected another fort on the opposite side. A few minutes later they were washed through a large opening in the cliffs, and the forts flashed by on either side; at the same moment the sea became still quieter, and the roar of the wind seemed left behind them.