Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1893-02-04
CHAPTER XIII.
THE LOSS OF THE BRIG.

1t tCas the spare yard ! had got hold Of.
1t was already late at night, and as
dark as it ever would be at that season
of the year (and that is to say it was
still pretty bright, when Hoseason
clapped his head into the roundhous-
door.
Here" said he, "come out and see it
ye can pilot"
AIS this one of your tricl,s?" asked
Alan.
"Do lool, like tricksy' cries the cap
tain. Il have other things to think Of
my briggs in danScr!"
BY the concerned look Of his face
and above all by the sharp tones in
which he spoke Of his brig, it was plain,
TO both Of Us he was in deadly earnest.
and so Alan and l. with no great fear o.
treachery, stepped on deck.
The sky was clear; it blew hard and
was bitter cold; great Geal of daylight
fingered, and the moon, which was near
ly full, shone bri sAtly.
Altogether it was no such i'll night to
keep the seas in, and | had begun tu
wonder what il WAS that sat SO heavily
upon the captain, wheu, the brig rising
suddenly ON the top Of u high swell, be
pointed and cried TO US TO look. Away
on the lee bow thing Ike fountain
rose out Of the mooulit sea, and imlne-
diately after we heard u low sound OF
roaring.
"What do ye call that" asked the cap
tain gloomily.
"The sea breaking on a reef" said
Alan. "And now ye ken where it is,
and what better would ye have;"
aye" said Hoseason, ''if it was the
only one"
And sure enough just as he spoke
there came a second fountain farther to
the south.
"There!" said Hoseason. "Ye see for
Yourself. If had kent of these reefs,
if | had had a chart, or if Shuan had
been spared, it's not sixty guineas-no,
nor six hundred, would have made me
risk my brig in sic stoneyard! But
you, sir, that was to pilot US, have ye
never word"
I'm thinking" said Alan, "these1l
be what they call the Torran rocks"
Are there many of them2' says the
captain.
Truly, sir, am nae pilot" said Alan,
"but it sticks in my mind there are ten
miles Of them"
Mr.. Riach and the captain looked at
each other.
There's a way through them, ! sup
paseg" said the captain.
"Doubtless," SAID Alan; "but where
But it somehow runs in my mind once
more that it is clearer under the land
"So?" said Hoseason. "Well have tc
haul our wind then, MIR. Riach; well
have to come as near in about the enc
of Null as we can take her, sir, and ever
then we'll have the land to keep the
wind off us and that stone yard on oui
lee. Well, we're in for it now and may
as well crack on"
With that he gave an order to the
steersman and sent Riach to the fore
top. There were only five men on deck
counting the officers. These We're al
that were fit, or at least both fit anC
willing, for their work, and two of thest
were hurt So, as | say, it fell to Mr.
Riach to go aloft, and he sat there look
ing out and hailing the deck with new'
of all he saw.
"The sea to the south is thick" HI
cried, and then after awhile, lit does
seem clearer in by the land"
well, sir" said Hoseason to Alan
well try your way of it. But | thinl
| might as well trust to blind fiddler
Pray God you're right"
pray God | ami" says Alan to me
But where did hear it9 Well, well
it will be as it must"
AS we got nearer to the turn Of thu
land the reefs began to be sown her'
and there ON our very path, and Mr.
Riach sometimes cried down to us t.
change the course. Sometimes indeed
none too soon, for one reef was so clos'
on the briggs weatherboard that whel
a son hurst unon IL the lighter 6praYt