Page 516 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

CHAPTER XXV. THE FLIGHT.

abbett, guided by the Crow, had determined to beach
Gthe captured boat on the southern point of Cape
Surville. It will be seen by those who have followed the de-
scription of the topography of Colonel Arthur’s Penitentiary,
that nothing but the desperate nature of the attempt could
have justified so desperate a measure. The perpendicular
cliffs seemed to render such an attempt certain destruction;
but Vetch, who had been employed in building the pier at
the Neck, knew that on the southern point of the promon-
tory was a strip of beach, upon which the company might,
by good fortune, land in safety. With something of the de-
cision of his leader, Rex, the Crow determined at once that
in their desperate plight this was the only measure, and set-
ting his teeth as he seized the oar that served as a rudder, he
put the boat’s head straight for the huge rock that formed
the northern horn of Pirates’ Bay.
Save for the faint phosphorescent radiance of the foam-
ing waves, the darkness was intense, and Burgess for some
minutes pulled almost at random in pursuit. The same
tremendous flash of lightning which had saved the life
of McNab, by causing Rex to miss his aim, showed to the
Commandant the whale-boat balanced on the summit of
an enormous wave, and apparently about to be flung against
the wall of rock which—magnified in the flash— seemed

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