Max Pemberton

“ The boat, as he said, was holding on the tack, the course being set, as it seemed, straight out to sea. Once or twice there broke from the Americans snarling curses and muttered oaths, but Messenger sat very still, with deeper lines in his face, and his hands moved restlessly, as the hands of a nervous man will. Thus it was for one terrible quarter of an hour, when the distant boat went up the bay; but at the last a shout, which was not to be held back, burst from the five, and Kenner sobbed like a woman. The coast-guard had pulled round the headland, and the bay was empty. ”

“ These were but a tithe of the questions the men asked themselves as they drove the ship over the shallows of the bay, and onward, until the greater waves touched her, and she began to rise upon the swell of the bar. Then all eyes were turned to the reef; and when they had rowed a short space, the first of the crags of rock seemed to take shape from the sea, when it rose before them as a dark pinnacle, Burke uttered a low cry of exultation, for the poop stood clear up above the water, and in the stillness there was no wave so great that it broke upon it. ”

“ At the sight of this course Kenner could no longer keep silence—
"Prince," said he, with a ghastly face, "they're rowing straight for the reef—did ye see that?"
"I did," said Messenger curtly. "Do you suggest that we should row after them?"
"But," cried Kenner, "they'll find the money——"
"Possibly," said Messenger. "It will be found by the first man that touches the point—if they're going there, they'll bring it back with them."
"He's right!" cried Burke, though he ground his teeth; "and they're laying dead on the tack. Look at 'em now!" ”