THE LOSS OF THE BRIG

Altogether it was no such ill night to keep the seas
in; and I had begun to wonder what it was that sat so
heavily upon the captain, when the brig rising suddenly
on the top of a high swell, he pointed and cried to us to
look. Away on the lee bow, a thing like a fountain rose
out of the moonlit sea, and immediately after we heard
a low sound of roaring.

‘*What do ye call that ?” asked the captain, gloomily.

“‘The sea breaking on a reef,” said Alan. ‘‘And
now ye ken where it is; and what better would ye
have P”

‘* Ay,” said Hoseason, ‘‘ if it was the only one.”

And sure enough, just as he spoke there came a sec-
ond fountain farther to the south.

‘‘There!” said Hoseason. ‘‘ Ye see for yourself. If
I had kent of these reefs, if | had had a chart, or if
Shuan had been spared, it’s not sixty guineas, no, nor
six hundred, would have made me risk my brig in sic a
stoneyard! But you, sir, that was to pilot us, have ye
never a word P”

“’'m thinking,” said Alan, ‘‘ these’ll be what they call
the Torran Rocks.”

‘* Are there many of them P” says the captain.

‘Truly, sir, | am nae pilot,” said Alan; ‘‘ but it sticks
in my mind there are ten miles of them.”

Mr. Riach and the captain looked at each other.

‘‘There’s a way through them, I suppose?” said the
captain.

‘‘Doubtless,” said Alan, ‘‘ but where? But it some-
how runs in my mind once more that it is clearer under
the land.”

“So?” said Hoseason. ‘‘ We'll have to haul our
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