I started round at the sound; and just at that moment, as the schooner’s bow sheered to port, I saw the form of Bedloe, one instant poised upon the bulwark, and the next projected by a desperate leap into the air, and plunging amid the silvery tumult of the surges; into which, however, the dusky form had not yet vanished, when Captain Jem’s pistols flashed and exploded with two rapid reports. Instinctively I turned ahead. The pestilent dwarf had by his last order sought to wreck the ship. Before us lay a barrier of coral, over which the sea poured, as a mighty river flashes over a weir. ‘Port—hard a port—for the love of life—port!’ I roared. It was just in time; the schooner surged round from the reef, struggling and plunging in the tempest, and then shooting along the rock. We saw the piragua tossing on the broken water, and one of the naked crew in the act of leaping overboard with a line, no doubt to the aid of the dwarf, whose head, as he swam skilfully and strongly, favoured by the eddy, rose every minute upon the tops of the uneven and broken surges. A hoarse shout of rage burst, in one inarticulate cry, from every one on board the schooner, but we had our own lives to look after. Fortunately, we were now in the channel which I had been in the act of buoying, when we discovered the dwarf’s retreat. My marks I could not, of course, discern; but I well knew the general lie of the reefs, and keeping my station in the weather-fore-rigging, I mustered all my coolness to con the ship. We had a dozen of hair-breadth escapes as we flew along. Very often the squall blew with such fury that the whole surface of the sea, deep and shallow, was of the same whiteness. Then a temporary lull would enable me to see the whereabouts of the ledges and banks, which I had already surveyed, so that I was enabled to shout my directions to Captain Jem with something like confidence. But after all, it was terrible guess-work. A sharp eye to watch, a skilful hand to work the ship, a steady heart to keep that eye bright and that hand firm, were what we needed, and that happily we possessed, so that after near half an hour, during which we stood with hands clenched and teeth set, no man daring to draw a full breath, we shot out from the bosom of shoals, and knew from the heavy rolling of the swells that we were in deep water, and in the open sea. Lucky for us, it was not until then that the full fury of the squall came roaring down. The sky grew well nigh as mirk as midnight, and the tempest hurtled through the air like the sweep of chariots and mighty squadrons in the clouds. ‘In with all! furl and brail—furl and brail!’ shouted Captain Jem.