Almost every eye was now cast out for the Dasher, and she was seen pulling with great difficulty—­for a handkerchief of canvass would have been madness—­towards the shelter of a projecting mass of rock, in Carne Cove, in the comparatively smooth water behind which, Helston and myself were enabled with some difficulty to get aboard.  It was a moment of some excitement.  Accustomed from childhood fearlessly to brave an element they might truly call their own, the gallant little crew steadily seated themselves, and taking off their hats manfully answered the encouraging cheers from aloft.  The men now shipped their oars, and all having been made snug, I seated myself in the stern-sheets, near Helston, who had taken the helm.  There was something fine in his weather-beaten countenance, and grey hair streaming in the breeze, as he steadily scanned the dark masses of the distant Wolf-stone—­he was a true seaman.

The Dasher was a boat that would live in almost any weather on this coast, head to wind; but when she was put about, there was no little danger of her being pooped in a heavy following sea.  Ours was now the former case, and as the crew put her through the contending sea, which at every stroke hit our bows and soaked us with spray, I anxiously consulted with Helston on the best means of shipping the captives on making the Wolf-stone.  Keeping his eye fixed on the rock, which was grimly visible on our larboard bow, he shook his head as the portentous darkness of the sky again claimed our attention.  “If we had been delayed a quarter of an hour longer they would have been food for fishes;” I remarked, “but it will be close run; our men are doing all that strength and skill can do, but it avails little when opposed to such a power as this.”

“Never fear, sir, we shall do yet—­you are not so cool as I—­how should you? when I have braved the storms of nearly sixty winters:—­but the Wolf-stone’s a spot, I will frankly confess, with which I had rather make acquaintance with a clearer sky and a flowing sheet, than on such a night as this.  Just give a look-out a-head, sir,” he added, as we were mounting a heavy sea, “and tell me how things are aloft on the rock.”

However formidable this dreary steep might have appeared at a distance, now we were drawing near to it, the wildness and sublimity of the scene surpassed my calculations.  The fugitives, who by their gestures were urging us onward, had been driven for shelter to a hollow on the leeward side of the rock, which indeed was almost the only spot that now afforded an asylum from danger.  The waves as they came rolling onwards with aggravated force from the main, ever and anon burst against the isle with terrific violence, now breaking into gigantic masses, then driven in columns of sparkling spray to a vast height in the air, and now closing on every side around their victims.  The isle, indeed, appeared to be menaced with total annihilation.