As he spoke the cog rasped along the edge of the reef, and a long white curling sheet of wood was planed off from her side from waist to poop by a jutting horn of the rock. At the same instant she lay suddenly over, the sail drew full, and she plunged seawards amid the shoutings of the seamen and the archers.
'The Virgin be praised!' cried the shipman, wiping his brow. 'For this shall bell swing and candle burn when I see Southampton Water once more. Cheerily, my hearts! Pull yarely on the bowline!'
'By my soul! I would rather have a dry death,' quoth Sir Oliver. 'Though, Mort Dieu! I have eaten so many fish that it were but justice that the fish should eat me. Now I must back to the cabin, for I have matters there which crave my attention.'
'Nay, Sir Oliver, you had best bide with us, and still show your ensign,' Sir Nigel answered; 'for, if I understand the matter aright, we have but turned from one danger to the other.'
'Good Master Hawtayne,' cried the boatswain, rushing aft, 'the water comes in upon us apace. The waves have driven in the sail wherewith we strove to stop the hole.' As he spoke the seamen came swarming on to the poop and the forecastle to avoid the torrent which poured through the huge leak into the waist. High above the roar of the wind and the clash of the sea rose the shrill half-human cries of the horses, as they found the water rising rapidly around them.
'Stop it from without!' cried Hawtayne, seizing the end of the wet sail with which the gap had been plugged. 'Speedily, my hearts, or we are gone!' Swiftly they rove ropes to the corners, and then, rushing forward to the bows they lowered them under the keel, and drew them tight in such a way that the sail should cover the outer face of the gap. The force of the rush of water was checked by this obstacle, but it still squirted plentifully from every side of it. At the sides the horses were above the belly, and in the centre
