Many voices called them to come away, while others dared them to hold on.

As the smooth-backed rollers passed to the south-ward, they hove the dory high and high into the mist, and dropped her in ugly, sucking, dimpled water, where she spun round her anchor, within a foot or two of the hidden rock.

It was playing with death for mere bravado; and the boats looked on in uneasy silence till Long Jack rowed up behind his countrymen and quietly cut their roding.
"Can't ye hear ut knockin' ?" he cried.

"Pull for your miserable lives! Pull!" The men swore and tried to argue as the boat drifted; but the next swell checked a little, like a man tripping on a carpet.

There was a deep sob and a gathering roar, and the Virgin flung up a couple of acres of foaming water, white, furious, and ghastly over the shoal sea.
Then all the boats greatly applauded Long Jack, and the Galway men held their tongue.
"Ain't it elegant ?" said Dan, bobbing like a young seal at home.
"She'll break about once every ha'af hour now, 'less the swell piles up good.