"Throw a lead-line overboard, and ascertain the drift!"Cap now roared to the people forward.A sign from Jas-per 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 vor-tex 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, Ibcseech 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.Ihope 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.""On what, then, do you rely? To moor a craft, head and stern, by faith, hope, and charity?""No, sir, I trust to the under-tow.I headed for the bluff because I knew that it was stronger at that point than at any other, and because we could get nearer in with the land without entering the breakers."This was said with spirit, though without any particular show of resentment.Its effect on Cap was marked, the feeling that was uppermost being evidently that of surprise.
"Under-tow!" he repeated; "who the devil ever heard of saving a vessel from going ashore by the under-tow?""This may never happen on the ocean, sir," Jasper an-swered modestly; "but we have known it to happen here.""The lad is right, brother," put in the Sergeant; "for, though I do not well understand it, I have often heard the sailors of the lake speak of such a thing.We shall do well to trust to Jasper in this strait."Cap grumbled and swore; but, as there was no remedy, he was compelled to acquiesce.Jasper, being now called on to explain what he meant by the under-tow, gave this account of the matter.The water that was driven up on the shore by the gale was necessarily compelled to find its level by returning to the lake by some secret channels.
This could not be done on the surface, where both wind and waves were constantly urging it towards the land, and it necessarily formed a sort of lower eddy, by means of which it flowed back again to its ancient and proper bed.
This inferior current had received the name of the under-tow, and, as it would necessarily act on the bottom of a vessel which drew as much water as the _Scud_, Jasper trusted to the aid of this reaction to keep his cables from parting.In short, the upper and lower currents would, in a manner, counteract each other.
Simple and ingenious as was this theory, however, as yet there was little evidence of its being reduced to practice.
The drift continued; though, as the kedges and hawsers with which the anchors were backed took the strains, it became sensibly less.At length the man at the lead an-nounced the joyful intelligence that the anchors had ceased to drag, and that the vessel had brought up! At this pre-cise moment the first line of breakers was about a hundred feet astern of the _Scud_, even appearing to approach much nearer as the foam vanished and returned on the raging surges.Jasper sprang forward, and, casting a glance over the bows, he smiled in triumph, as he pointed exultingly to the cables.Instead of resembling bars of iron in rigid-ity, as before, they were curving downwards, and to a sea-man's senses it was evident that the cutter rose and fell on the seas as they came in with the ease of a ship in a tides-way, when the power of the wind is relieved by the counteracting pressure of the water.
"'Tis the undertow!" he exclaimed with delight, fairly bounding along the deck to steady the helm, in order that the cutter might ride still easier."Providence has placed us directly in its current, and there is no longer any dan-ger."
"Ay, ay, Providence is a good seaman," growled Cap, "and often helps lubbers out of difficulty.Under-tow or upper-tow, the gale has abated; and, fortunately for us all, the anchors have met with good holding-ground.Then this d----d fresh water has an unnatural way with it."Men are seldom inclined to quarrel with good fortune, but it is in distress that they grow clamorous and critical.
Most on board were disposed to believe that they had been saved from shipwreck by the skill and knowledge of Jas-per, without regarding the opinions of Cap, whose remarks were now little heeded.
There was half an hour of uncertainty and doubt, it is true, during which period the lead was anxiously watched;and then a feeling of security came over all, and the weary slept without dreaming of instant death.
