366 IMMINENT PERIL. 



and now, seeing the danger, the steersman swept 

 round the boat's stern : instantly it was caught 

 by an eddy to the right, which snapping an oar, 

 twirled her irresistibly broad side on ; so that for 

 a moment it seemed uncertain whether the boat 

 and all in her were to be hurled into the hollow 

 of the fall, or dashed stern foremost on the sunken 

 rocks. Something perhaps wiser than chance 

 ordained it otherwise ; for how it happened no 

 account can be given, but so it was that her 

 head swung inshore towards the beach, and 

 thereby gave Sinclair and others an opportunity 

 of springing into the water, and thus, by their 

 united strength, rescuing her from her perilous 

 situation. Now had the man to whom the first 

 order was given understood and acted upon it, 

 no human power could have saved the crew from 

 being buried in the frightful abyss. Nor yet 

 could any blame be justly attached to the steers- 

 man : he had never been so situated before ; 

 and even in this imminent peril his coolness 

 and self-possession never forsook him. At the 

 awful moment of suspense, when one of the crew 

 with less nerve than his companions began to 

 cry aloud to Heaven for aid, M c Kay, in a still 

 louder voice, exclaimed, " Is this a time for pray- 

 ing? Pull your starboard oar." "Heaven helps 

 those who help themselves" seems to have been 

 the creed of the stout-hearted highlander. 



