Chapter 16 - Page 2

it had some one aboard to give it the right sheer.
Touch it did at the south cape, but just winding as handy as a craft could
have done it, in a good tide's way, out to sea it went ag'in, bound to the
south pole for-ti-'now."

"Well, this is good news, and may be the means of saving the Vineyard
craft in the end. We do seem to be setting bodily into the bay, and if we
can only get clear of that island, I do not see what is to hinder it. Here
is a famous fellow of a mountain to the northward, coming down before the
wind, as one might say, and giving us a cant into the passage. I should
think that chap must produce some sort of a change, whether it be for
better or worse."

"Ay, ay, sir," put in Thompson, who acted as a boat-steerer at need, "he
may do just that, but it is all he can do. Mr. Green and I sounded out
from the cove for a league or more, a few days since, and we found less
than twenty fathoms, as far as we went. That chap up to the nor'ard
there, draws something like a hundred fathoms, if he draws an inch. He
shows more above water than a first-rate's truck."

"That does he, and a good deal to spare. Thompson, do you and Todd remain
here, and look after the boat, while the rest of us will shape our course
for the schooner. She seems to be in a wicked berth, and 'twill be no more
than neighbourly to try to get her out of it."

Truly enough might Roswell call the berth of the Sea Lion, of the
Vineyard, by any expressive name that implied danger. When the party
reached her, they found the situation of that vessel to be as follows. She
had been endeavouring to work her way through a passage between two large
fields, when she found the ice closing, and that she was in great danger
of being 'nipped.' Daggett was a man of fertile resources, and great
decision of character. Perceiving that escape was impossible, all means of
getting clear being rendered useless by the floes soon touching, both
before and behind him, he set about adopting the means most likely to save
his vessel. Selecting a spot where a curve, in the margin of the field to
leeward, promised temporary security, at least, he got his vessel into it,
anchored fast to the floe. Then he commenced cutting away the ice, by
means of axes first, and of saws afterwards, in the hope that he might
make such a cavity as, by its size and shape, would receive the schooner's
hull, and prevent her destruction. For several hours had he and his people
been at this work, when, to their joy, as well as to their great
astonishment, they were suddenly joined by Roswell and his party. The fact
was, that so intently had every one of the Vineyard men's faculties been
absorbed by their own danger, and so much was