Nor was this an easy task.
Seldom have I breasted such angry, boiling surge as beat against us--there was no fronting it for those of us beyond our depths, while even De Noyan, making a manful struggle, was forced slowly back into deeper water, where he floundered helpless as the rest.

It spun us about like so many tops, until I heard a great crunching of timbers, accompanied by a peculiar rasping which caused my heart to stop its pulsation.

All at once the heavy bow swung around.

Caught by it, I was hurled flat against the face of a black rock, and squeezed so tightly between stone and planking I thought my ribs must crack.
It was then I noted Cairnes, struggling just beyond me, reaching backward with his foot until he found purchase against the stone, then lifting his great crop to gaze about, sweeping the moisture from his eyes.

He braced one mighty shoulder against the boat's side, with such a heave as I never supposed lay in the muscles of any man; swung that whole dead weight free of the rock, and ere the dancing craft, we clinging desperately to it, had made two circles in the mad boiling, I felt my feet strike bottom, and stood upright, ready to do my share again.
"Are you safe, Madame ?" I questioned anxiously, for I could see no signs of her presence from where I stood, and she uttered no sound.
"I am uninjured," she returned, "but the boat takes water freely.