Next moment the vast foresail fell with a run by the board, and the nine athletes below were nearly shot into the air by the force of the collapse.

The coats, fortunately, held together sufficiently well to enable them to be hauled on board in a piece; but as they were soaked through, they afforded very little comfort to the distressed seamen, who decided forthwith to shorten sail at once, and take to the poles once more.
But by this time the "Cock-House," thanks to the tremendous impetus it had just received, was twenty yards from the shore; and Wally, when he put down his pole, nearly went after it, in the vain search for a bottom.
"Here's a go!" said he; "I say, you chaps, I almost fancy, after all, Rollitt must be up the mountain.

What do you say ?" "I thought so all along," said Fisher minor.

"If he is, Yorke and Stratton will find him." "Good old Yorke! I say--we may as well back water a bit." Easier said than done.

The old punt, now she was once out on the vasty deep, behaved pretty much as she and the wind between them pleased.