The Pilot Read Online Free PDF Page B

out, through the shoals, he will
earn a right to his name. This bids fair to be a night when a man will
need a spy-glass to find the moon. But when you hear what I have seen on
those rascally cliffs, you will be more ready to excuse my delay, Mr.
Griffith."
    "You have seen the true man, I trust, or we incur this hazard to an evil
purpose."
    "Ay, I have seen him that is a true man, and him that is not," replied
Barnstable, bitterly; "you have the boy with you, Griffith—ask him what
his young eyes have seen."
    "Shall I!" cried the young midshipman, laughing; "then I have seen a
little clipper, in disguise, out sail an old man-of-war's man in a hard
chase, and I have seen a straggling rover in long-togs as much like my
cousin—"
    "Peace, gabbler!" exclaimed Barnstable in a voice of thunder; "would you
detain the boats with your silly nonsense at a time like this? Away into
the barge, sir, and if you find him willing to hear, tell Mr. Griffith
what your foolish conjectures amount to, at your leisure."
    The boy stepped lightly from the whale-boat to the barge, whither the
pilot had already preceded him, and, as he sunk, with a mortified air,
by the side of Griffith, he said, in a low voice:
    "And that won't be long, I know, if Mr. Griffith thinks and feels on the
coast of England as he thought and felt at home."
    A silent pressure of his hand was the only reply that the young
lieutenant made, before he paid the parting compliments to Barnstable,
and directed his men to pull for their ship.
    The boats were separating, and the plash of the oars was already heard,
when the voice of the pilot was for the first time raised in earnest.
    "Hold!" he cried; "hold water, I bid ye!"
    The men ceased their efforts at the commanding tones of his voice, and
turning toward the whale-boat, he continued:
    "You will get your schooner under way immediately, Captain Barnstable,
and sweep into the offing with as little delay as possible. Keep the
ship well open from the northern headland, and as you pass us, come
within hail."
    "This is a clean chart and plain sailing, Mr. Pilot," returned
Barnstable; "but who is to justify my moving without orders, to Captain
Munson? I have it in black and white, to run the Ariel into this
feather-bed sort of a place, and I must at least have it by signal or
word of mouth from my betters, before my cutwater curls another wave.
The road may be as hard to find going out as it was coming in—and then
I had daylight as well as your written directions to steer by."
    "Would you lie there to perish on such a night?" said the pilot,
sternly. "Two hours hence, this heavy swell will break where your vessel
now rides so quietly."
    "There we think exactly alike; but if I get drowned now, I am drowned
according to orders; whereas, if I knock a plank out of the schooner's
bottom, by following your directions, 'twill be a hole to let in mutiny,
as well as sea-water. How do I know but the old man wants another pilot
or two."
    "That's philosophy," muttered the cockswain of the whale-boat, in a
voice that was audible: "but it's a hard strain on a man's conscience to
hold on in such an anchorage!"
    "Then keep your anchor down, and follow it to the bottom," said the
pilot to himself; "it's worse to contend with a fool than a gale of
wind; but if—"
    "No, no, sir—no fool neither," interrupted Griffith. "Barnstable does
not deserve that epithet, though he certainly carries the point of duty
to the extreme. Heave up at once, Mr. Barnstable, and get out of this
bay as fast as possible."
    "Ah! you don't give the order with half the pleasure with which I shall
execute it; pull away, boys—the Ariel shall never lay her bones in such
a hard bed, if I can help it."
    As the commander of the schooner uttered these words with a cheering
voice, his men spontaneously shouted, and the whale-boat darted away
from her companion, and was soon lost in the gloomy shadows cast from
the cliffs.
    In the mean time, the oarsmen of the barge were not idle,