Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/54

 48 THE CRATER; afterwards believed that the rush and weight of this sea, which did no serious harm, frightened the men into the launch, where Hillson was already in person, and that the boat either struck adrift under the power of the roller, or that the &amp;gt;ainter was imorudently cast off in the confusion of the moment. He had got in as far as the windlass him self, when the sea came aboard ; and, as soon as he reco vered his sight after the ducking he received, he caught a dim view of the launch, driving off to leeward, on the top of a wave. Hailing was useless, and he stood gazing at the helpless boat until it became lost, like everything else that w,as a hundred yards from the ship, in vhe gloom of night. Even then Mark was by no means conscious of the extent of the calamity that had befallen him. It was only when he had visited cabin, steerage and forecastle, and called the crew over by name, that he reached the grave fact thafthere was no one left on board the Ranco- cus but Bob Betts and himself! As Mark did not know what land was to be found to leeward, he naturally enough hoped and expected that the people in both boats might reach the s-hore, and be reco vered in the morning; but he had little expectation of ever seeing Captain Crutchely again. The circumstances, however, afforded him little time to reflect on these things, and he gave his whole attention, for the moment, to the preservation of the ship. Fortunately, the anchor held, and, as the wind, which had never blown very heavily, sensibly began to lessen, Mark was sanguine in the belief it would continue to hold. Captain Crutchely had taken the precaution to have the cable bitted at a short range, with a view to keep it, as much as possible, off the bottom ; coral being known to cut the hempen cables that were alto gether in use, in that day, almost as readily as axes. In consequence of this bit of foresight, the Rancocus lay at a distance of less than forty fathoms from her anchor, which Mark knew had been dropped in four fathoms water. He now sounded abreast of the main-mast, and ascertained that the ship itself was in nine fathoms. This was cheer ing intelligence, and when Bob Betts heard it, he gave it as his opinion that all might yet go well with them, could they only recover the six men who had gone to leeward in