Fiction > Book editions > London, 1886 - Kidnapped

116                                    KIDNAPPED.
"There's a way through them, I suppose?" said
the captain.
"Doubtless," said Alan; "but where? But it
somehow runs in my mind once more, that it is clearer
under the land."
"So? " said Hoseason. "We'll have to haul our
wind then, Mr. Riach; we'll have to come as near in
about the end of Mull as we can take her, sir; and even
then we'll have the land to kep the wind off us, and
that stoneyard on our lee. Well, we're in for it now,
and may as well crack on."
With that he gave an order to the steersman, and
sent Riach to the foretop. There were only five men on
deck, counting the officers; these were all that were fit
(or, at least, both fit and willing) for their work; and
two of these were hurt. So, as I say, it fell to Mr.
Riach to go aloft, and he sat there looking out and hail-
ing the deck with news of all he saw.
"The sea to the south is thick," he cried; and then,
after a while, "It does seem clearer in by the land."
"Well, sir," said Hoseason to Alan, "we'll try your
way of it. But I think I might as well trust to a blind
fiddler. Pray God you're right."
"Pray God I am!" says Alan to me. "But where
did I hear it? Well, well, it will be as it must."
As we got nearer to the turn of the land the reefs
began to be sown here and there on our very path; and
Mr. Riach sometimes cried down to us to change the
course. Sometimes, indeed, none too soon; for one reef