"Ah!" exclaimed Maxwell, as the critical nature of our situation began to dawn upon him, "I see--or, rather, we shall see in a minute or two. Gascoigne, were you on deck when the log was last hove? If you were not, you ought to have been, you know, and--" "I was," interrupted Gascoigne. "She was doing a bare seven, and making two and a half points leeway." "Whew!" whistled Maxwell; "two and a half points! That's bad. The old girl ought to be ashamed of herself. No self-respecting frigate ought ever to make more than two points leeway." "Oh, oughtn't she!" jeered Gascoigne. "You just go up on deck and see how every sea that hits her knocks her bodily to leeward, and you'll tell a different story, my friend." "Well, well, I'll take your word for it this time, young man, just to encourage you a bit, you know. Now, let's see how that works out. How did you say she was heading, Delamere?" "Nor'-nor'-west," I repeated. "Nor'-nor'-west," echoed Maxwell, seizing his parallel ruler and applying it to the chart. "And two and a half points of leeway, applied to the right, makes it north, half east; while Point du Raz bears--or bore--north, three-quarters east. Um! It's going to be `touch and go' with us, I am afraid, at that rate; for while she will doubtless weather the point itself all right, there is that out-jutting reef, which is as likely as not to bring us up with a round turn." "And supposing we should be lucky enough to scrape past," I inquired, "is there anything beyond that we need worry about? I am almost certain that I heard the master say something about `Les Stevenets,' or some such name." "Les Stevenets," repeated Maxwell--"yes, of course; there they are, about two and a half miles to the nor'-west of the point. But I don't see why old Trimble need worry about them, for if we can't weather them there is plenty of room for us to pass them to leeward, after having done which we shall have plenty of time to decide upon our next move. That is our critical point." And he put his finger on Point du Raz. "I'm going on deck to see how things look." So saying, Maxwell rolled up his chart, put it and his instruments away, turned up the collar of his jacket, and sprang up the ladder, Gascoigne, Fleming, and I following him.