former case, and as the crew put her through the contending sea, which
at every stroke hit our bows and soaked us with spray, I anxiously
consulted with Helston on the best means of shipping the captives on
making the Wolf-stone. Keeping his eye fixed on the rock, which was
grimly visible on our larboard bow, he shook his head as the portentous
darkness of the sky again claimed our attention. "If we had been delayed
a quarter of an hour longer they would have been food for fishes;" I
remarked, "but it will be close run; our men are doing all that strength
and skill can do, but it avails little when opposed to such a power as
this."

"Never fear, sir, we shall do yet--you are not so cool as I--how should
you? when I have braved the storms of nearly sixty winters:--but the
Wolf-stone's a spot, I will frankly confess, with which I had rather
make acquaintance with a clearer sky and a flowing sheet, than on such a
night as this. Just give a look-out a-head, sir," he added, as we were
mounting a heavy sea, "and tell me how things are aloft on the rock."

However formidable this dreary steep might have appeared at a distance,
now we were drawing near to it, the wildness and sublimity of the scene
surpassed my calculations. The fugitives, who by their gestures were
urging us onward, had been driven for shelter to a hollow on the leeward
side of the rock, which indeed was almost the only spot that now
afforded an asylum from danger. The waves as they came rolling onwards
with aggravated force from the main, ever and anon burst against the
isle with terrific violence, now breaking into gigantic masses, then
driven in columns of sparkling spray to a vast height in the air, and
now closing on every side around their victims. The isle, indeed,
appeared to be menaced with total annihilation.