Digital heart book

I had not arrived at this reviving certainty before the
breakers were already close aboard, the leadsman at his
station, and the captain posted in the fore cross-trees
to con us through the coral lumps of the lagoon. All
circumstances were in our favour, the light behind, the
sun low, the wind still fresh and steady, and the tide
about the turn. A moment later we shot at racing speed
betwixt two pier heads of broken water; the lead began
to be cast, the captain to bawl down his anxious
directions, the schooner to tack and dodge among the
scattered dangers of the lagoon; and at one bell in the
first dog-watch we had come to our anchor off the
north-east end of Middle Brooks Island, in five fathoms
water. The sails were gasketed and covered, the boats
emptied of the miscellaneous stores and odds and ends
of sea-furniture, that accumulate in the course of a
voyage, the kedge sent ashore, and the decks tidied
down: a good three-quarters of an hour's work, during
which I raged about the deck like a man with a strong
toothache.


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