Phil found himself under the frowning battlement of the huge cliff on a
ledge of sand and shingle scarcely twenty feet wide. But there was less
sweep for the rain here and the _Adventurer_ was plainly visible through
the strange semi-darkness. Steve had made the shore end of the cable
fast to a boulder that stood, half out of the shingle, at the base of
the cliff. For a long minute the six boys huddled there in the storm and
disconsolately gazed at the boat. It was Han who voiced the thought of
most of them.
"She won't stay together long, I guess," he said sorrowfully. "Those
waves will batter her to pieces."
"She'll stand a lot of battering," answered Steve hopefully. "It's
hitting her on the beam and she hasn't swung much since I left her. The
tide's still coming in and--" He stopped. Then: "I ought to have
dropped the stern anchor over," he went on. "What an idiot! If she had
that to hold her from swinging broadside--"
"Would it hold her?" asked Joe dubiously.
"It would help." Steve tightened his belt. "I'm going back," he said.
They remonstrated, but to no purpose. Then Joe and Han wanted to go
along, and were denied. "It's no trick," said Steve resolutely. "I can
do it easily. You fellows stand by when I come ashore again.
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