Every pilot in the lot was watching now, with fixed eyes, and talking under his breath.

Nobody was calm and easy but Mr.Bixby.He would put his wheel down and stand on a spoke, and as the steamer swung into her (to me) utterly invisible marks--for we seemed to be in the midst of a wide and gloomy sea--he would meet and fasten her there.

Out of the murmur of half-audible talk, one caught a coherent sentence now and then--such as-- 'There; she's over the first reef all right!' After a pause, another subdued voice-- 'Her stern's coming down just exactly right, by George!' 'Now she's in the marks; over she goes!' Somebody else muttered-- 'Oh, it was done beautiful--BEAUTIFUL!' Now the engines were stopped altogether, and we drifted with the current.

Not that I could see the boat drift, for I could not, the stars being all gone by this time.

This drifting was the dismalest work; it held one's heart still.