The Cruise of the Dainty | Page 8

the bulwarks. Suddenly, the stillness
was broken by a dull splash. I started; it seemed to me as if some one
had fallen overboard, but it was only one of the monsters of the deep
poking its snout for an instant above the surface, and when I looked
over the side it had disappeared. Occasionally I heard similar sounds at
various distances. I had some difficulty in keeping myself awake,
though by continuing my walk I was able to do so; but I was not sorry
when the old mate turned out, without being called, to relieve me.
"We have not got a breeze yet," I observed as he came on deck.
"No, Master Ned, and we shan't get one during my watch either; and
maybe not when the sun is up again," he answered.
Tom was right. When I came on deck the next morning the sea was as
calm as before. Though it appeared impossible that we could have
moved our position, I was greatly surprised, on looking away to the
westward, to see what I at first took to be the masts of a vessel rising
above the horizon. I pointed them out to my brother who had just come
on deck. He told me to go aloft with a telescope and examine them
more minutely. I then discovered that they were trees growing on a
small island, apparently cocoanuts, or palms of some sort. Beyond, to
the south and west, were several islands of greater elevation, some blue

and indistinct, but others appeared to be covered with trees like the
nearer one, while between us and them extended from north to south a
line of white surf distinctly marked on the blue ocean. On reporting to
Harry what I had seen, he said that the surf showed the existence of a
barrier reef surrounding the islands. "We may find a passage through it,
but sometimes these reefs extend for miles without an opening through
them. A strong current must be setting from the eastward towards it, or
we should not have been drawn so far during the night, for certainly
there was no appearance of an island in that direction at sundown."
We soon had convincing proof that Harry was right in his conjecture.
There could be no doubt that a current was setting us towards the land,
for the trees gradually rose higher and higher above the water, and at
length we could see them from the deck, while the white line of surf
breaking on the reef became more and more distinct. At the same time
a slowly moving, at first scarcely perceptible swell, which Fanny called
the breathing of the ocean, passed ever and anon under the vessel,
lifting her so gently that the sails remained as motionless as before. It
was difficult indeed to discover that there was any movement in the
mirror-like surface of the deep, and yet we could feel the deck rise and
fall under our feet. The awning was rigged, and Mary and Fanny were
seated in their easy-chairs under it, Mary reading aloud while her sister
worked. Nat, who had placed himself near them, cross-legged on a
grating, to listen, with a marline-spike and a piece of rope, was
practising the art of splicing, in which he had made fair progress. "I say,
Ned, I wish you would show me how to work a Turk's head," he
exclaimed.
I went to him and did as he asked me. This made Mary stop reading;
and Fanny, looking out towards the island, remarked, "How near we are
getting. I am so glad, for I want to see a real coral island, and that of
course is one. I suppose we shall anchor when we get close to it, and be
able to go on shore." Harry, who overheard her, made no reply, but
looked unusually grave, and told me to bring the chart from below.
Spreading it out on the companion-hatch, we again, for the third or
fourth time, gave a careful look at it.

"I cannot understand the set of this current," he said. "It probably
sweeps round the island. But we are being carried much closer than I
like to be in so perfect a calm. If we get a breeze it will be all right,
but--"
Just then the sails gave several loud flaps, as if some one had shaken
them out, and the schooner rolled now to one side, now to the other.
Her head had moved so as to bring the swell abeam. Once having
begun, she went on making the same unpleasant movements. It was
evident that the swell had increased.
"Is there no way to stop her from doing that?" asked Mary.
"Not till the wind fills her sails," answered Harry. "I hope, however,