There, right in the path of the vessel, illuminated by the powerful searchlight, was a mass of foam. At the same moment the lookout yelled:
"Breakers ahead! We're headed for a reef!"
With a quick motion, while his heart almost stopped beating, Nat spun the little wheel around. The ship quivered. It seemed to hesitate, as if debating whether or not to rush to destruction on the sharp rocks, just hidden under the treacherous water, or to glide to one side.
Then, slowly, so slowly that Nat's heart almost ceased beating lest she should not change her course quickly enough, the _Mermaid_ swung around, and her prow was pointed away from the dangerous reef.
Nat's plucky piloting had saved the vessel!
Into the little pilot-house rushed the captain. He had heard the lookout's cry, and had guessed what had happened.
"We were almost on Dagget's Point reef!" he exclaimed. "How did we escape it?"
"I saw it in time," answered Nat modestly.
"Thank God!" cried the captain, as he grasped the young pilot by the hand. "There's deep water all around us, and if we'd struck it would have meant a terrible loss of life."
At that instant there was a hoarse scream from a siren whistle, and, peering out of the windows of the pilot-house, Nat and the captain saw, looming up in front of them, but some distance away, another steamer. Nat blew a caution signal, and it was answered from the other vessel, which quickly turned aside, and then disappeared in the mist of rain.
"I believe they were headed right for the reef, too," said the captain. "You warned them in time. Well, we have a good course from now out. I'll take the wheel, and you go lie down."
But Nat would not. He insisted on remaining in the pilot-house until morning, and when daylight came, he saw that the other vessed was not far from them, both ships being headed for the same harbor. The other ship was the _Spray_, of much smaller tonnage than the _Mermaid_.
"She must have turned back after meeting us," thought Nat, "as she was headed in the opposite direction when we met near the reef."
Captain Turton decided to lay over for some hours, as, during the storm, his vessel had suffered some minor damage, which he wanted repaired.
"How is Mr. Weatherby?" asked Nat, as soon as there was no longer any need of him remaining in the pilot-house.