David was a good seaman and fearless, with a full measure of faith in his skill.  Now that his eyes were open to the peril in which he had placed them, he knew that all the skill he possessed and perhaps more would be required to take them safely into shelter.

Comfort Island with its offer of snug harbour lay a half mile to leeward.  David brought the boat before the wind, and headed directly for the island.

Great breakers, pounding the high, rockbound shores of Comfort Island, and booming like cannon, threw their spray a hundred feet in the air, enveloping the island in a cloud of mist.

Stretching away from the island for a mile to the westward was a rocky shoal known as the Devil’s Arm.  At high tide, in calm weather, it might be crossed, but now it was a great white barrier of roaring breakers rising in mighty geysers above the sea.

To the eastward of the island was a mass of black reefs known as the Devil’s Tea Kettle.  The Devil’s Tea Kettle was always an evil place.  Now it was a great boiling cauldron whose waters rose and fell in a seething white mass.

It was quite out of the question to round the Devil’s Arm and beat back against the wind to the lee of the island.  There was a narrow passage between the Devil’s Tea Kettle and the island.  If they could make this passage it would be a simple matter to fall in behind the island to shelter and safety.

All of these things David saw at a glance.  It was a desperate undertaking, but it was the only chance, and he held straight for the passage.  If he could keep the boat to her course, he would make it.  If a sudden squall of wind overtook them the leeway would throw them upon the island breakers and they would be swallowed up in an instant and pounded to pieces upon the rocks.

Over and over again David breathed the prayer:  “Lord, take us through safe!  Lord, take us through safe!” His face was set, but his nerves were iron.  Andy and Jamie, tense with the peril and excitement of the adventure, crouched in the bottom of the boat.  As they drew near the island, Jamie shouted encouragingly: 

“Keep your grit, and a stout heart like a man, Davy!” but the roar of breakers drowned his voice, and David did not hear.

“Is you afraid, Jamie?” Andy yelled in Jamie’s ear.

“Aye,” answered Jamie, “but I has plenty of grit.”

He who knows danger and meets it manfully though he fears it, is brave, and Jamie and all of them were brave.

The boat was in the passage at last.  David, every nerve tense, held her down to it.  On the right seethed the Devil’s Tea Kettle, sending forth a continuous deafening roar.  On the left was Comfort Island with a boom! boom! of thundering breakers smashing against its high, sullen bulwarks of black rocks.  The boat was so near that spray from the breakers fell over it in a shower.

[Illustration:  ON THE RIGHT SEETHED THE DEVIL’S TEA KETTLE]