"
With this Parthian shaft of humor he vanished towards the forecastle,
whence the ubiquitous donkey-boiler, through one of its long arms,
would shoot forth the stockless anchors at the touch of a lever.
Tollemache, who had already glimpsed the coast, strolled out on deck
and bent well over the side in order to look more directly ahead. He
could see one half only of the view, but that sufficed.
"A respite!" he growled to himself. "Penal servitude instead of sudden
death."
And, indeed, this was the true aspect of things, as Courtenay
discovered when he had successfully brought the ship past three ugly
reefs and dropped anchor in the backwater of a small sheltered bay. He
speedily abandoned the half-formed hope that the _Kansas_ might have
run into an ocean water-way which communicated with Smyth Channel. The
rampart of snow-clad hills had no break, while a hasty scrutiny of the
chart showed him that the eastern coast of Hanover Island had been
thoroughly surveyed. Yet it was not in human nature that he should not
experience a rush of joy at the thought that, by his own efforts, he
had saved his ship and some, at least, of the lives entrusted to his
care.
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