354 TEE CRUISE OF THE "CACHALOT.'* 



again in Port William before midnight. Here we were 

 compelled to remain for a week ; for after the gale blew 

 itself out, the wind still hung in the same quarter, refusing 

 to allow us to get back again to our cruising station. 



But on the second day of our enforced detention a 

 ship poked her jibboom round the west end of the little 

 bay. No words could describe our condition of spell- 

 bound astonishment when she rounded-to, cumbrously 

 as befitting a ship towing a whale, and revealed to us 

 the well-remembered outlines of the old Chance, It was 

 like welcoming the first-fruits of the resurrection ; for 

 who among sailor men, having seen a vessel disappear 

 from their sight, as we had, under such terrible condi- 

 tions, would ever have expected to see her again ? She 

 was hardly anchored before our skipper was alongside, 

 thirsting to satisfy his unbounded curiosity as to the un- 

 heard-of means whereby she had escaped such apparently 

 inevitable destruction. I was fortunate enough to 

 accompany him, and hear the story at first-hand. 



It appeared that none of the white men on board, 

 except the redoubtable Paddy himself, had ever been 

 placed in so seemingly hopeless and desperate a position 

 before. Yet when they saw how calm and free from 

 anxiety their commander was, how cool and business- 

 like the attitude of all their dusky shipmates, their con- 

 fidence in his ability and resourcefulness kept its usual 

 high level. It must be admitted that the test such 

 feelings were then subjected to was of the severest, for 

 to their eyes no possible avenue of escape was open. 

 Along that glaring line of raging, foaming water not a 

 break occurred, not the faintest indication of an opening 

 anywhere wherein even so experienced a pilot as Paddy 

 might thrust a ship. The great black wall of rock 

 loomed up by their side, grim and pitiless as doom — a 



