Читать книгу Midshipman Merrill онлайн

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The response came bluntly:

“I am not here, sir, to speak of myself, but to pilot your vessel to a safe harbor, for you are in Hopeless Haven, and yonder storm will wreck you here.”

“Hopeless Haven is it, my lad? Then are you a hundred times welcome, and to one who has your nerve I gladly yield the craft,” said Captain Saunders hastily, and Mark Merrill stepped to the wheel just as the anchors left the bottom, and the reefed sails went to leeward with a jerk under a sudden squall.

But the boy pilot was unmoved, and, declining a glass of liquor brought to him by the steward, at General Peyton’s order, bent his every energy upon his work, for now the rushing, furious storm was coming down in an avalanche of winds and waves, and a roaring and flaming like unto a mighty battle.

As though wild with fear the yacht drove furiously on, heading to round the rocky reef off the cliff, her crew at their posts, the guests crouched in the companionway and cock-pit, and all eyes alternately turned upon the young pilot, calm and fearless, and the storm so near upon them.