"Dick’s plan was to dive through the opening with the hope that he’d clear the rigging and sails underneath it some way or another. I tried to dissuade him from trying it, and pointed out how slim his chance was; but he was bound to go. He said it was better to drown at once and have it over with than to stay in there and meet a slow death along with the rats. He stripped off his clothes so as to have a better chance of swimming, wrung my hand, and said, ‘Good-by, skipper. If I get out, you’ll hear me pounding. If you don’t hear anything you’ll know what’s happened.’ Then he drew in a long breath, and made a dive for the hole. He got through it, I know, for I saw the ray of light darken and then come again; but I didn’t hear a sound from him afterwards, though I listened for more than an hour. “But hello, boys! here comes a puff of wind and there’s more behind it. If you and Nimbus can manage to get some sail on the old craft we will make a start for home, and I’ll spin you the rest of my yarn some other time.” CHAPTER XVI. NAVIGATING THE BRIG. The brigantine, on which our dorymates now found themselves shipped as able seamen under the command of Captain McCloud, had been almost left to herself for nearly two weeks, during which time the current of the Gulf Stream had carried her far to the northward of her course. No observations had been taken on board in all this time, and the dense fog, through which the vessel had been drifting for the past four days, would have effectually prevented this work even had Captain McCloud been strong enough to perform it. He was therefore not surprised to learn from the boys that he was now on the Grand Bank, but he determined to try and take an observation at noon that day, and discover their exact position. The promise of wind that interrupted the captain’s story was fulfilled by a steady breeze from the southward, which, as their general course was westerly, was favorable and satisfactory. While the captain took the wheel, Nimbus and the boys hoisted the jib, got the foresail loosed and sheeted home, shook the reefs out of the fore-topsail, swayed up the heavy yard by means of a winch, and set the royal. They got one reef out of the main-sail without much trouble, but when it came to the second they found it so difficult to hoist the great folds of heavy canvas and its weighty spar that the boys became wholly exhausted with their efforts, and even the enormous strength of Nimbus was exerted to its utmost. After bracing the yards, trimming the sheets of the head-sails, and even getting in a bit of the main-sheet, they set to work overhauling the running rigging, and bringing order out of its confused tangle.