hooker alone; I'll have to get out and
let her drift."

He removed completely one of the splintered bars from the broken cage.
"I've got to leave you, old fellow," he told the cowering animal, "but
I'll give you the run of the ship."

He went below once more and came quickly back with the log-book and
papers from the captain's room. He tied these in a tight wrapping of
oilcloth from the galley and hung them at his belt. He took the wheel
again and brought the cumbersome craft slowly into the wind. The bare
mast of his own sloop was bobbing alongside as he went down the line
and swam over to her.

Fending off from the wallowing hulk, he cut the line, and his small
craft slipped slowly astern as the big vessel fell off in the wind and
drew lumberingly away on its unguided course.

She vanished into the clear-cut horizon before the watching man ceased
his staring and pricked a point upon his chart that he estimated was
his position.

And he watched vainly for some sign of life on the heaving waters as
he set his sloop back on her easterly course.

* * * * *

It was a sun-tanned young man who walked with brisk strides into the
office of Admiral Struthers. The gold-striped arm of the uniformed man
was extended in quick greeting.

"Made it, did you?" he exclaimed. "Congratulations!"

"All O.K.," Thorpe agreed. "Ship and log are ready for your
verification."

"Talk sense," said the officer. "Have any trouble or excitement? Or
perhaps you are more interested in collecting a certain bet than you
are in discussing the trip."

"Damn the bet!" said the young man fervently. "And that's just what I
am here for--to talk about the trip. There were some little incidents
that may interest you."

He painted for the Admiral in brief, terse sentences the picture of
that daybreak on the Pacific, the line of breakers, white in the
vanishing night, the abandoned ship beyond, cracking her canvas to
tatters in the freshening breeze. And he told of his boarding her and
of what he had found.

"Where was this?" asked the officer, and Thorpe gave his position as
he had checked it.

"I reported the derelict to a passing steamer that same day," he
added, but the Admiral was calling for a chart. He spread it on the
desk before him and placed the tip of a pencil in the center of an
unbroken expanse.

"Breakers, you said?" he questioned. "Why, there are hundreds of
fathoms here, Mr. Thorpe."