Marcia, fortunately, had become insensible, though her sobbing,
panting breath showed the extremity of terror that had pursued her as
long as consciousness remained. Nearer and nearer they come; an oar's
length, a step; they touch now! No, a wave careens the boat, and she
lightly grazes by. Now opens a cleft, perhaps wide enough for her to
enter. With helm hard down the bow sweeps round, and they float into a
narrow basin with high, perpendicular walls, opening only towards the
sea. When within this little harbor, the boat lodged on a shelving rock
and heeled over as the wave retreated. Greenleaf and his companion, who
had now recovered from her swoon, kept their places as though hanging at
the eaves of a house. They were safe from the fury of the storm without,
but there was no prospect of an immediate deliverance. The rock rose
sheer above them thirty or forty feet, and they were shut up as in the
bottom of a well. The waves dallied about the narrow entrance, shooting
by, meeting, or returning on the sweep of an eddy; but at intervals they
gathered their force, and, tumbling over each other, rushed in, dashing
the spray to the top of the basin, and completely drenching the luckless
voyagers. This, however, was not so serious a matter as it would have
been if their clothes had not been wet before in the heavy rain. The
tide slowly rose, and the boat floated higher and higher against the
rock, as the shadows began to settle over the gulf.
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