The boys had turned in half-undressed, to be ready for an early start in the morning. Henry Burns slipped on his trousers, scrambling about in the darkness.
Jack, get up! he cried, seizing his sleeping comrade and shaking him roughly. Wake up, fellows quick! Somethings the matter.
He burst open the cabin doors and rushed out on deck.
No, there was no delusion here. The reef lay close aboard. The din of the beating, crashing waters seemed deafening. The Viking , dipping and falling with the long swells, was going slowly but surely down upon it.
Henry Burns reached for a short sheath-knife that he carried when aboard the yacht, moved quickly along from the stern to the foot of the mast, and cut the stops with which the sail had been furled. Then he dashed to the bulkhead, and, without stopping to cast off the turns from the cleats, seized the throat and peak halyards and began hauling desperately.
The next moment, Tom and Bob had tumbled forward and caught hold with him; while Harvey, emerging half-awake from the companionway, seized the wheel.
Three athletic pairs of arms had the mainsail up quicker than it had ever been set before.
Quick now with the jib! cried Harvey. That will head us off, if theres any breeze to save us. Jump it for dear life, boys.
They needed no urging. It was set almost before Harvey had finished speaking. Tom, holding it off as far as he could reach to windward, stood on the weather-bow, shivering in the cool night air and glaring fearfully at the rocks close ahead. The white spray, writhing up half as high as the mast, seemed to be coming nearer and nearer.
Henry Burns, having seen the mainsail and jib set, and realizing there was nothing left to do only to hope that there was wind enough stirring to fill the sails, dashed down into the cabin. He brought up the spare anchor, which he proceeded to bend on to a coil of rope. But the danger had passed before he had it ready to cast astern.
The yacht, like a living thing, seeming to feel its own peril, had caught just the faintest of the wandering night airs in its great white sail. The tide, ebbing, was urging it down to destruction. Then, as the wind caught the sail, the boat responded slightly, but began to head up, pointing fair at the black rocks. Harvey let the sheet run off. The jib, held far out to windward, caught another faint puff of air and headed the yacht slowly but surely off the wind.
The yacht had saved itself. Gliding ever so slowly, it skirted along the edge of the reef for a moment, till Harvey had brought it around fairly before the wind. Then there was one final contest between breeze and tide. The yacht hung upon the waves sluggishly, so close in upon the reefs that the spray, dashing over, wetted the boys aboard.
Then it moved slowly up against the tide, rising and falling heavily upon the seas, but gaining a little, and then more.
It was enough. The spare anchor went overboard, the yacht brought up and held. They dropped the sails once more, unharmed, with the black, hungry reef
stretching out its white arms of foam and spray, vainly, balked of their prey.
O-oh! said Harvey, sinking down on a seat. That was a close shave. But what could have made that rope part? Thats what I cant understand. It was a brand-new one.
They found out a half-hour later, after they had gone below and put on their jackets and warmed themselves and had returned on deck. They drew the end of the line aboard and examined it by a lantern in the cabin.
It was not broken. The end was clean, without a frayed strand in it. It had been severed with a single sweep of a fishermans knife, sharp as a razor-blade.
Ah! ejaculated Harvey. We might have guessed. Its old Martels work. Well have the law on him for this.
But when they peered across the water with the coming daylight there was no pink-stern sloop to be seen, because it had gone out with the tide long before, just as they went adrift, and was out upon the sea now, standing off to the eastward.
Well, we have learned two lessons, said Henry Burns. One is to have the spare anchor where it can be got at quicker when its needed. Id have gone for that first if I hadnt remembered that we had it buried under that lot of stuff forward.
And whats the other lesson? asked Bob.
Its to be never without a knife when you are sailing a boat, answered Henry Burns. I heard a fisherman say that once, and so I bought one to wear in a belt aboard here. But I never thought just what it would mean to be without one when every second counts.
I wish young Joe were here, remarked Tom.
Whys that? asked Harvey.
He would have the coffee on by this time, replied Tom. That night air sent the shivers through me.
Something else sent the shivers through me, remarked Henry Burns. Ill go and start the fire.
CHAPTER VIII. LITTLE TIM A STRATEGIST
Viking Surprise Viking Viking Spray SurpriseIt was hard work, for the barnacles and sea-grasses had covered the yacht everywhere, not only below, but on deck and even in the cabin. They got some pieces of joist that had been cast up ashore with a lot of other riffraff and shored the yacht up on an even keel, so they could work to better advantage, without getting in one anothers way.