“Luff!” called out the Skimmer, so quickly as to show that he took the movements of the cruiser for his guide.  The ship came closer to the wind, but the sudden bend in the stream no longer permitted her to steer in a direct line with its course.  Though drifting to windward with vast rapidity, her way through the water, which was greatly increased by the contrary actions of the wind and tide, caused the cruiser to shoot across the current; while a reef, over which the water madly tumbled, lay immediately in her course.  The danger seemed too imminent for the observances of nautical etiquette, and Trysail railed aloud that the ship must be thrown aback, or she was lost.

“Hard-a-lee!” shouted Ludlow, in the strong voice of authority.—­“Up with every thing—­tacks and sheets!—­main-top-sail haul!”

The ship seemed as conscious of her danger as any on her decks.  The bows whirled away from the foaming reef, and as the sails caught the breeze on their opposite surfaces, they aided in bringing her head in the contrary direction.  A minute had scarcely passed ere she was aback, and in the next she was about and full again.  The intensity of the brief exertion kept Trysail fully employed; but no sooner had he leisure to look ahead, than he again called aloud—­

“Here is another roarer under her bows;—­luff Sir, luff, or we are upon it!”

“Hard down your helm!” once again came in deep tones from Ludlow—­“Let fly your sheets—­throw all aback, forward and aft—­away with the yards, with a will, men!”

There was need for all of these precautions.  Though the ship had so happily escaped the dangers of the first reef, a turbulent and roaring caldron in the water, which, as representing the element in ebullition, is called ‘the Pot,’ lay so directly before her, as to render the danger apparently inevitable.  But the power of the canvas was not lost on this trying occasion.  The forward motion of the ship diminished, and as the current still swept her swiftly to windward, her bows did not enter the rolling waters until the hidden rocks which caused the commotion had been passed.  The yielding vessel rose and fell in the agitated water, as if in homage to the whirlpool; but the deep keel was unharmed.

“If the ship shoot ahead twice her length more, her bows will touch the eddy!” exclaimed the vigilant master.

Ludlow looked around him, for a single moment in indecision.  The waters were whirling and roaring on every side, and the sails began to lose their power, as the ship drew near the bluff which forms the second angle in this critical pass.  He saw, by objects on the land, that he still approached the shore, and he had recourse to the seaman’s last expedient.

“Let go both anchors!” was the final order.