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Homeward Bound - or, the Chase by James Fenimore Cooper
page 285 of 613 (46%)
the refined and single-minded champion of the people. The other admitted
his indiscretion; and if the affair had no other consequences, it afforded
these two fine young men a moment's merriment, at a time when anxiety had
been fast getting the ascendency over their more cheerful feelings. When
they endeavoured to make Miss Effingham share in the amusement, however,
that young lady heard them with gravity; for the meanness of the act
discovered by Nanny Sidley, had indisposed her to treat the subject of
their comments with the familiarity of even ridicule. Perceiving this,
though unable to account for it, the gentlemen changed the discourse, and
soon became sufficiently grave by Contemplating their own condition.

The situation of the Montauk was now certainly one to excite uneasiness
in those who were little acquainted with the sea, as well as in those who
were. It was very much like that for which Miss Effingham's nurse had
pined, having many rocks and sands in sight, with the land at no great
distance. In order that the reader may understand it more clearly, we
shall describe it with greater minuteness.

To the westward of the ship lay the ocean, broad, smooth, glittering, but,
heaving and setting, with its eternal breathings, which always resemble
the respiration of some huge monster. Between the vessel and this waste of
water, and within three hundred feet of the first, stretched an irregular
line of ripple, dotted here and there with the heads of low naked rocks,
marking the presence and direction of the reef.

This was all that would interpose between the basin and the raging
billows, should another storm occur; but Captain Truck thought this would
suffice so far to break the waves as to render the anchorage sufficiently
secure. Astern of the ship, however, a rounded ridge of sand began to
appear as the tide fell, within forty fathoms of the vessel, and as the
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