The yards were now braced round and the _Pilot's Bride_ began to beat out of the bay against the head wind, which was now blowing right on to the shore.
"Guess we aren't a bit too soon," said the skipper, when the vessel, after her second tack to starboard, just cleared Herald Point.

"If we'd stopped much longer, we'd been forced to stop altogether, I reckon!" "Was there any danger ?" asked Fritz innocently.
"Yes, mister; there's allers danger to a shep with a gale comin' on an' a nasty shore under her lee.

There's nothin' like the open sea for safety! When you can't come to an anchor in a safe harbour, the best thing is to up cable an' cut and run, say I!" Inaccessible Island was only about eighteen miles distant from Tristan; but, as it lay to the south-west of that island and the wind blew strongly from almost the same quarter, the _Pilot's Bride_ had to make a couple of long tacks before she could approach sufficiently near for Fritz to see the spot where he and his brother had elected to pass so many weary months of solitary exile.
As the ship beat to windward, passing the island twice on either tack, he was able to notice what a bare, inhospitable-looking place it was.
Its structure seemed pretty much the same as that of Tristan, with the exception that the snow-white cone projecting into the clouds, which was the most noticeable feature in the latter island, was here wanting; but, a wall of volcanic rocks, about the same height as the cliff of Tristan d'Acunha, entirely surrounded the desolate spot, falling for the most part sheer into the sea and only sloping, as far as could be seen from the distance the ship was off, sufficiently on one side to allow of any access to the top.

Against this impenetrable, adamantine barrier, on the west, the heavy rolling sea that had travelled all the way from Cape Horn was breaking with a loud din, sending columns of spray flying over almost the highest peaks and making the scene grand but awesome at the same time.
"Well might it be called Inaccessible Island!" exclaimed Fritz, gazing intently at the threatening cliffs and cruel surge.
"Yes, sirree, it kinder skearts one to look at it, don't it now, hey ?" "I should think it more dangerous to approach than Tristan ?" said Fritz presently.
"I rayther guess so, mister," replied the skipper.

"I rec'lect readin', when I was a b'y, of the wreck of a big East Indyman here bound fur Bombay.