insomuch most dangerously situated but the wind did not blow strong
enough to prevent the ship from weathering them, provided time was taken
by the forelock. The Rancocus was a good, weatherly ship, nor was there
sufficient sea on to make it at all difficult for her to claw off a lee
shore. Desperate indeed is the situation of the vessel that has rocks or
sands under her lee, with the gale blowing in her teeth, and heavy seas
sending her bodily, and surely, however slowly, on the very breakers she
is struggling to avoid! Captain Crutchely had not been aloft five
minutes before he hailed the deck, and ordered Mark to send Bob Betts up
to the cross-trees. Bob had the reputation of being the brightest
look-out in the vessel, and was usually employed when land was about to
be approached, or a sail was expected to be made. He went up the
fore-rigging like a squirrel, and was soon at the captain's side, both
looking anxiously to leeward. A few minutes after the ship had hauled by
the wind, both came down, stopping in the top, however, to take one more
look to leeward.

The second-mate stood waiting the further descent of the captain, with a
soft of leering look of contempt on his hard, well-dyed features, which
seemed to anticipate that it would soon be known that Mark's white water
had lost its colour, and become blue water once more. But Captain
Crutchely did not go as far as this, when he got down. He admitted that
he had seen nothing that he could very decidedly say was breakers, but
that, once or twice, when it lighted up a little, there had been a
gleaming along the western horizon which a good deal puzzled him. It
might be white water, or it might be only the last rays of the setting
sun tipping the combs of the regular seas. Bob Betts, too, was as much
at fault as his captain, and a sarcastic remark or two of Hillson, the
second-mate, were fast bringing Mark's breakers into discredit.