Now, the headland to the southward stretches
full three leagues to windward, and the shoals lie to the north; among
which God keep us from ever running this craft again!"
"We will beat her out of the bight, old fellow," cried the lieutenant;
"we shall have a leg of three leagues in length to do it in."
"I have known longer legs too short," returned the cockswain, shaking
his head; "a tumbling sea, with a lee-tide, on a lee-shore, makes a sad
lee-way."
The lieutenant was in the act of replying to this saying with a cheerful
laugh, when the whistling of a passing shot was instantly succeeded by a
crash of splintered wood; and at the next moment the head of the
mainmast, after tottering for an instant in the gale, fell towards the
deck, bringing with it the mainsail, and the long line of topmast, that
had been bearing the emblems of America, as the cockswain had expressed
it, among the stars of the heavens.
"That was a most unlucky hit!" Barnstable suffered to escape him in the
concern of the moment; but, instantly resuming all his collectedness of
manner and voice, he gave his orders to clear the wreck, and secure the
fluttering canvas.
The mournful forebodings of Tom seemed to vanish with the appearance of
a necessity for his exertions, and he was foremost among the crew in
executing the orders of their commander. The loss of all the sail on the
mainmast forced the Ariel so much from her course, as to render it
difficult to weather the point, that jutted, under her lee, for some
distance into the ocean.
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