Yet we could look for no help from her, even if
she sighted us and was on the same course. We could not heave to
and wait her, and by the time she overhauled us, we were likely to
be somewhat too near the shore for safety.
For the mountains hove up from the sea very fast now. Some current
had us in its grip, setting us shoreward swiftly. Soon we could see
the lower hills along the coast, with sheer, black cliffs, and a
fringe of climbing foam at their feet, which was disquieting enough
as we headed straight for them. We forgot the other ship in that
sight, as we looked in vain for some gap in the long wall which
stretched across our course. Only in one place, right ahead, the
breakers seemed nearer, and as if there might be shelving shore on
which they ran, rather than shattering cliffs on which they beat.
And presently we knew that between us and the shore lay an island,
low and long, rising to a green hill toward the mainland, but
seeming to end to the seaward in a beach which might have less
dangers for us than the foot of the cliffs beyond. So far as we
could make out from the deck, the strait between this island and
the mainland might be two miles wide, or a little less.
"If only we could get under the lee of that island we were safe,"
said Bertric to me.
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