The carpenter, who, notwithstanding the uneasiness of the dismasted vessel, was performing his important share of the work, immediately complied with the order. He drew up the rope-yarn, to which an iron rule had been suspended, and lowered down into the pump-well, and perceived that the water was dripping from it. Imagining that it must have been wet from the quantity of water shipped over all, the carpenter disengaged the rope-yarn from the rule, drew another from the junk lying on the deck, which the seamen were working up, and then carefully proceeded to plumb the well. He hauled it up, and, looking at it for some moments aghast, exclaimed, '_Seven feet_ water in the hold, by G--d!' If the crew of the _Circassian_, the whole of which were on deck, had been struck with an electric shock, the sudden change of their countenances could not have been greater than was produced by this appalling intelligence. Heap upon sailors every disaster, every danger which can be accumulated from the waves, the wind, the elements, or the enemy, and they will bear up against them with a courage amounting to heroism. All that they demand is, that the one plank 'between them and death' is sound, and they will trust to their own energies, and will be confident in their own skill: but _spring a leak_, and they are half paralysed; and if it gain upon them they are subdued; for when they find that their exertions are futile, they are little better than children. Oswald sprang to the pumps when he heard the carpenter's report. 'Try again, Abel--it cannot be: cut away that line; hand us here a dry rope-yarn.' Once more the well was sounded by Oswald, and the result was the same. 'We must rig the pumps, my lads,' said the mate, endeavouring to conceal his own fears; 'half this water must have found its way in when she was on her beam-ends.' This idea, so judiciously thrown out, was caught at by the seamen, who hastened to obey the order, while Oswald went down to acquaint the captain, who, worn-out with watching and fatigue, had, now that danger was considered to be over, thrown himself into his cot to obtain a few hours' repose. 'Do you think, Bareth, that we have sprung a leak?' said the captain earnestly. 'She never could have taken in that quantity of water.' 'Never, sir,' replied the mate; 'but she has been so strained, that she may have opened her top-sides. I trust it is no worse.' 'What is your opinion, then?' 'I am afraid that the wreck of the masts have injured her; you may recollect how often we struck against them before we could clear ourselves of them; once, particularly, the mainmast appeared to be right under her bottom, I recollect, and she struck very heavy on it.' 'Well, it is God's will; let us get on deck as fast as we can.'