While Paddy held on so far to leeward of them,
and consequently in so much more imminent danger than they were,
it would be derogatory in the highest degree to their reputation
for seamanship and courage were they to slip and run before he
did. He, however, showed no sign of doing so, although they all
neared, with an accelerated drift, that point from whence no
seamanship could deliver them, and where death inevitable, cruel,
awaited them without hope of escape. The part of the coast upon
which they were apparently driving was about as dangerous and
impracticable as any in the world. A gigantic barrier of black,
naked rock, extending for several hundred yards, rose sheer from
the sea beneath, like the side of an ironclad, up to a height of
seven or eight hundred feet. No outlying spurs of submerged
fragments broke the immeasurable landward rush of the majestic
waves towards the frowning face of this world-fragment. Fresh
from their source, with all the impetus accumulated in their
thousand-mile journey, they came apparently irresistible.
Against this perpendicular barrier they hurled themselves with a
shock that vibrated far inland, and a roar that rose in a
dominating diapason over the continuous thunder of the tempest-
riven sea.
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