"If the tide were not rising, I should know better what to do; for we might go back to the angle in the channel, out of the reach of the guns, and remain there till the morning tide, and then work out into deep water," said Captain Scott, after he had observed the movements of the enemy for a couple of minutes. "But with two feet more water, the Fatimé can go at least up to the verge of the ledge, and that plan would not work anyhow."
"Another gun!" cried Felix, as he caught the flash.
The enemy was a little nearer than before, but the shot fell hardly less than half a mile from the Maud. Mazagan had "swung to" in order to fire this shot, but resumed his course at once. Scott desired to gain some time by leaving the channel, and heading to the south-east. Morris was sounding with his boathook, and reported only thirteen feet when the Maud began to move in that direction.
"Twelve feet and a half!" shouted the first officer a little later.
"This won't do," said Scott, shaking his head. "The water shoals to the southward, and all we can do is to face the music."
"What do you mean by that, Captain?" asked Louis.
Scott made a couple of crosses on his diagram, and passed it to his companion.
"The cross on your left is our present position near the outlet of the channel," the captain explained. "On the port we have the ledge, and we can't run over that. On the starboard the water is too shoal for us. We can go neither to the right nor the left."
"Precisely so, or right into the guns of the enemy."
"Couldn't you retreat up the channel again?" asked Louis; and it began to look to him as though "the end of all things had come;" and it even appeared possible that he might be captured, after all.
"Heave the lead, Flix!" called the captain, without answering the question.
"That means fifteen feet," said the captain. "The Fatimé could come into this position now, or at least within an hour. After we had run as far as we could go up the channel, we should hardly be more than four hundred and fifty feet from her, and she could batter the Maud to pieces at her leisure. We must face the music. That is our only safety, if there is any safety anywhere."
"I am with you, Captain Scott. But we are taking all the shot, and giving none. I am not a nonresistant in such a situation as this," said Louis. "We can't run away, and we must fight!"