The Pilot | Page 6

iron, and that a rock can't knock a hole in it! or does he
think she is manned with alligators, who can't be drowned!"
A languid smile played for a moment round the handsome features of
the young man, who was rather reclining than sitting in the stern-sheets
of the barge, as he replied:
"He knows your prudence too well, Captain Barnstable, to fear either
the wreck of your vessel or the drowning of her crew. How near the
bottom does your keel lie?"
"I am afraid to sound," returned Barnstable. "I have never the heart to
touch a lead-line when I see the rocks coming up to breathe like so

many porpoises."
"You are afloat!" exclaimed the other, with a vehemence that denoted
an abundance of latent fire.
"Afloat!" echoed his friend; "ay, the little Ariel would float in air!" As
he spoke, he rose in the boat, and lifting his leathern sea-cap from his
head, stroked back the thick clusters of black locks which shadowed his
sun-burnt countenance, while he viewed his little vessel with the
complacency of a seaman who was proud of her qualities. "But it's
close work, Mr. Griffith, when a man rides to a single anchor in a place
like this, and at such a nightfall. What are the orders?"
"I shall pull into the surf and let go a grapnel; you will take Mr. Merry
into your whale-boat, and try to drive her through the breakers on the
beach."
"Beach!" retorted Barnstable; "do you call a perpendicular rock of a
hundred feet in height a beach!"
"We shall not dispute about terms," said Griffith, smiling, "but you
must manage to get on the shore; we have seen the signal from the land,
and know that the pilot, whom we have so long expected, is ready to
come off."
Barnstable shook his head with a grave air, as he muttered to himself,
"This is droll navigation; first we run into an unfrequented bay that is
full of rocks, and sandpits, and shoals, and then we get off our pilot.
But how am I to know him?"
"Merry will give you the password, and tell you where to look for him.
I would land myself, but my orders forbid it. If you meet with
difficulties, show three oar-blades in a row, and I will pull in to your
assistance. Three oars on end and a pistol will bring the fire of my
muskets, and the signal repeated from the barge will draw a shot from
the ship."
"I thank you, I thank you," said Barnstable, carelessly; "I believe I can

fight my own battles against all the enemies we are likely to fall in with
on this coast. But the old man is surely mad, I would----"
"You would obey his orders if he were here, and you will now please to
obey mine," said Griffith, in a tone that the friendly expression of his
eye contradicted. "Pull in, and keep a lookout for a small man in a drab
pea-jacket; Merry will give you the word; if he answer it, bring him off
to the barge."
The young men now nodded familiarly and kindly to each other, and
the boy who was called Mr. Merry having changed his place from the
barge to the whale-boat, Barnstable threw himself into his seat, and
making a signal with his hand, his men again bent to their oars. The
light vessel shot away from her companion, and dashed in boldly
towards the rocks; after skirting the shore for some distance in quest of
a favorable place, she was suddenly turned, and dashing over the
broken waves, was run upon a spot where a landing could be effected
in safety.
In the mean time the barge followed these movements, at some distance,
with a more measured progress, and when the whale-boat was observed
to be drawn up alongside of a rock, the promised grapnel was cast into
the water, and her crew deliberately proceeded to get their firearms in a
state for immediate service. Everything appeared to be done in
obedience to strict orders that must have been previously
communicated; for the young man, who has been introduced to the
reader by the name of Griffith, seldom spoke, and then only in the pithy
expressions that are apt to fall from those who are sure of obedience.
When the boat had brought up to her grapnel, he sunk back at his
length on the cushioned seats of the barge, and drawing his hat over his
eyes in a listless manner, he continued for many minutes apparently
absorbed in thoughts altogether foreign to his present situation.
Occasionally he rose, and would first bend his looks in quest of his
companions on the shore, and then, turning his expressive eyes toward
the