The cable reached from the anchor in deep water to the sloop's windlass by just enough to secure a turn and no more.

The anchor had been dropped at the right distance from the vessel.

To heave all taut now and wait for the coming tide was all I could do.
I had already done enough work to tire a stouter man, and was only too glad to throw myself on the sand above the tide and rest; for the sun was already up, and pouring a generous warmth over the land.

While my state could have been worse, I was on the wild coast of a foreign country, and not entirely secure in my property, as I soon found out.
I had not been long on the shore when I heard the patter, patter of a horse's feet approaching along the hard beach, which ceased as it came abreast of the sand-ridge where I lay sheltered from the wind.

Looking up cautiously, I saw mounted on a nag probably the most astonished boy on the whole coast.