“This is not well done, Master Jasper!” angrily exclaimed Cap, as soon as he perceived the trick which had been played him; “this is not well done, sir.  I order you to cut, and to beach the cutter without a moment’s delay.”

No one, however, seemed disposed to comply with this order; for so long as Eau-douce saw fit to command, his own people were disposed to obey.  Finding that the men remained passive, Cap, who believed they were in the utmost peril, turned fiercely to Jasper, and renewed his remonstrances.

“You did not head for your pretended creek,” added he, after dealing in some objurgatory remarks that we do not deem it necessary to record, “but steered for that bluff, where every soul on board would have been drowned, had we gone ashore.”

“And you wish to cut, and put every soul ashore at that very spot!” Jasper retorted, a little drily.

“Throw a lead-line overboard, and ascertain the drift!” Cap now roared to the people forward.  A sign from Jasper sustaining this order, it was instantly obeyed.  All on deck watched, with nearly breathless interest, the result of the experiment.  The lead was no sooner on the bottom, than the line tended forward, and in about two minutes it was seen that the cutter had drifted her length dead in towards the bluff.  Jasper looked gravely, for he well knew nothing would hold the vessel did she get within the vortex of the breakers, the first line of which was appearing and disappearing about a cable’s length directly under their stern.

“Traitor!” exclaimed Cap, shaking a finger at the young commander, though passion choked the rest.  “You must answer for this with your life!” he added after a short pause.  “If I were at the head of this expedition, Sergeant, I would hang him at the end of the main-boom, lest he escape drowning.”

“Moderate your feelings, brother; be more moderate, I beseech you; Jasper appears to have done all for the best, and matters may not be so bad as you believe them.”

“Why did he not run for the creek he mentioned? —­ why has he brought us here, dead to windward of that bluff, and to a spot where even the breakers are only of half the ordinary width, as if in a hurry to drown all on board?”

“I headed for the bluff, for the precise reason that the breakers are so narrow at this spot,” answered Jasper mildly, though his gorge had risen at the language the other held.

“Do you mean to tell an old seaman like me that this cutter could live in those breakers?”

“I do not, sir.  I think she would fill and swamp if driven into the first line of them; I am certain she would never reach the shore on her bottom, if fairly entered.  I hope to keep her clear of them altogether.”

“With a drift of her length in a minute?”

“The backing of the anchors does not yet fairly tell, nor do I even hope that they will entirely bring her up.”