A HARD STRUGGLE 213 



" I was engaged in this work at the stern when I heard Ber- 

 nardo shout, ' Mr. Preechard ! Mr. Preechard ! ' 



"I lay my full length along the deck and looked down at 

 Bernardo in the engine-room. He was holding on to the pump, 

 which was spouting steam and water. There was no room for two 

 people in the engine-room, nor in that angry sea was there much 

 possibility of my getting down there. So I lay along the port 

 decking, and slipped my feet under the after-hatch, thanking Pro- 

 vidence for my length, and so managed to hold the pump down 

 while Bernardo tried to repair the damage. 



" Every now and then the seas caught us almost broadside on 

 and broke heavily, nearly sweeping me over with them. My head 

 being outside, I could see Cattle clinging on like a cat, and doing 

 all that man could do to keep us from swinging round. We we're 

 on the bar, and scarcely twenty yards outside the fiercest of the 

 breakers. As it was, big seas kept sweeping over the launch and 

 crashing on her plates, making her roll appallingly. 



" Between us and the shore was from one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty yards of yeasty surge, dominated by a heavy 

 current setting south. The anchor continued to drag, and we 

 hung on while Bernardo fought with screws and nuts for our 

 lives. While we drifted back over the bar, nearly capsizing as 

 we did so, it became obvious that our only course lay in first 

 getting in the anchor and then putting it out again with a good 

 length of chain. In spite of the almost inconceivable rolling of 

 our craft. Cattle was successful in his attempt to do this, and 

 the launch came prow on to the breakers, which were losing 

 something of their fury as they crashed across the bar, twenty 

 yards in front of us. 



" Meantime, Bernardo did not relax his efforts to get the engines 

 working once more. We were, as I have explained, a couple 

 of hundred yards from the shore, towards which the full force of 

 the wind, aided by the current I have mentioned as setting south 

 towards the mouth of the Santa Cruz, was drifting us. 



" The anchor dragged again, and we had to under! ake the 

 difficult business of getting it in, and taking a second chance of 

 dropping it on better holding ground. 



