A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A QUEER RACE. 151 “Well said, Mr. Erle. Can I do anything to help your” “Yes; there is only one hatch open. Shut it, and tell Marian and Buttercup to stay where they are. Then lash yourself firmly to something.” All this passed in a few seconds, and I stood by, maul in hand, ready to slip the cable, taking care not to do it too soon, lest the ship should drive on the roeks before we were overtaken by the wave. As it leaped over them I knocked the pin out of the shackle. Away flew the cabie, and without a moment’s delay I lashed myself to the capstan. Mab had fastened herself to the foremast. What happened next | can hardly tell. The huge wave curled over us, then a cascade of green water fell on the deck, and for a minute or two all was darkness. We were under water, and I verily thought the ship was going to the bottom; but she came up again like a strong swimmer after a deep dive, and sometimes on her beam- ends, sometimes stern foremost, roliing, pitching. plung- ing, gvrating like atwig on a mill-stream, was carried madly forward on the crest of that mighty wave. ! began to think we were out of the frying-pan into the fire; for to be flung ashore at the speed we were going would be quite as bad as falling foul of the Painted Rocks. Lhe coast toward which we were driving was strange to me—a part of the island I had not seen before—low and thickly wooded, and I saw no signs of life or eulti- vation. On sped the wave, as remorseless as fate; it rushed up a sandy beach, carried us over the tree tops, and finally landed the Diana high and dry, stranded in a ravine at least two miles from the shore. CHAPTER XXIV. SAVED. WE were saved, but I was so dazed with the speed at which we had driven, the rolling of the ship, the rush of the wave, and the tumult of the storm, so overwrought with excitement and suspense, that it took me sometime to realize the factand to make sure that the sea had done its worst, and that I might -safely unloose myself from the capstan. 700 (E(0) mm (@. cS (Eo)