A NIGHT'S PERIL. 139 



" You don't mean to say that you cannot get her 

 round 1 " this was said to me in a tone that seemed 

 to imply that I could if I would. 



" If I could," I answered, " I should have run her 

 on the reef; she would certainly soon go to pieces there, 

 but it was our only chance." 



" Never mind her going to pieces," said he ; "I 

 will pay half the damage." 



It annoyed me, even at that terrible moment, to 

 hear our condition made a question of pounds, shil- 

 lings, and pence. I felt angry, too, with him, when 

 I reflected that we had been brought to this predica- 

 ment simply by his clumsiness. I so far gaA r e way 

 to anger as to tell him that, if we got- safe to land, I 

 never would go sailing with him again, nor trust 

 myself on salt water with a watch-mate who didn't 

 know what " luff " meant, and who wanted to sail in 

 the wind's eye under a jib. Poor Hamilton, who 

 now seemed fully to appreciate our peril, contented 

 himself with assuring me that I might rest quiet, for 

 I never should go sailing again with him or with any- 

 body else. 



A growing and abiding sense of the truth of this 

 probability soon checked the spirit of squabbling 

 within each of us. "We were every moment drifting 

 out farther and farther. So long as the lights of the 

 island had been visible, they had imparted some 

 degree of comfort. They at least showed whither 

 our course would lay, in case matters should so far 



