`` There ! '' said Hoseason . `` Ye see for yourself . If I had kent of these reefs , if I had had a chart , or if Shuan had been spared , it 's not sixty guineas , no , nor six hundred , would have made me risk my brig in sic a stoneyard ! But you , sir , that was to pilot us , have ye never a word ? '' `` I 'm thinking , '' said Alan , `` these 'll be what they call the Torran Rocks . '' `` Are there many of them ? '' says the captain . `` Truly , sir , I am nae pilot , '' said Alan ; `` but it sticks in my mind there are ten miles of them . '' Mr. Riach and the captain looked at each other . `` There 's a way through them , I suppose ? '' said the captain . `` Doubtless , '' said Alan , `` but where ? But it somehow runs in my mind once more that it is clearer under the land . '' `` So ? '' said Hoseason . `` We 'll have to haul our wind then , Mr. Riach ; we 'll have to come as near in about the end of Mull as we can take her , sir ; and even then we 'll have the land to kep the wind off us , and that stoneyard on our lee . Well , we 're in for it now , and may as well crack on . '' With that he gave an order to the steersman , and sent Riach to the foretop . There were only five men on deck , counting the officers ; these being all that were fit -LRB- or , at least , both fit and willing -RRB- for their work .
So , as I say , it fell to Mr. XXXXX to go aloft , and he sat there looking out and hailing the deck with news of all he saw .
Alan Hoseason Mull Riach Shuan Torran foretop guineas steersman stoneyard