She rocked; she wriggled like a weather-cock; then swung clean round her anchor.
"If it will only hold her!" groaned Capt.Mazard.

"But, if it drags, she'll strike!" Old Trull, Weymouth, and Bonney were at the windlass, easing out the cable as the vessel rose on the tide.

Corliss was at the wheel, tugging and turning,--to what purpose was not very evident.

But they were doing their level best to save the vessel: that was plain.

Capt.
Mazard stood with clinched hands watching them, every muscle and nerve tense as wire.
I was hoping the most dangerous crisis had passed, when a tremendous noise, like a thunder-peal low down to the earth, burst from the ice-jammed arm of the inlet to the north-east.