occasional gybing of the spanker, showing how close up to the wind
the vessel was being steered. "You couldn't luff her a bit more,
McCarthy, could you?" he added, after another glance at the compass and
a murmured "steady!" to the steersman.

"Not a ha'porth, sorr," replied the mate sorrowfully, as if it went to
his heart to make the announcement. "I had the watch up only jist a
minit ago; an' if you'll belave me, Cap'en Dinks, we've braced up the
yards to the last inch the sheets will run, bad cess to thim!"

"Well, well, I suppose we'll have to put up with it; though it's rather
disheartening to have this sou'-wester right in one's teeth before we
have cleared the Chops of the Channel, after all our good luck in having
so fair a wind down with us from the Nore!"

The captain still spoke somewhat disconsolately; but, his temperament
was of too bright and elastic a nature to allow him long to look merely
on the dark side of things. Soon, he saw something to be cheerful over,
in spite of the adverse influence of Aeolus; and this was, as it
appeared to him, the wonderful progress the ship was making, although
sailing, close-hauled as she was, with the wind right before the beam.

"Now, isn't she a beauty, though, McCarthy," he said presently, with a
sort of triumphant ring in his speech, after gazing for a few moments in
silence over the taffrail astern at the long foaming wake the vessel was
leaving behind her, spread out like a glittering silver fan across the
illimitable expanse of greenish-tinged water. "Isn't she a beauty to
behave as she does under the circumstances! There are not many ships
laden like her that would make five knots out of a foul wind, as she is
now doing, eh?"

"That there ain't, sorr," promptly returned the other with hearty
emphasis, only too glad to have the opportunity of agreeing with his
skipper. "An' jist you wait, sorr, till we get into the nor'-east
trades; an' by the powers we'll say the crathur walk away from us, like
one of thim race-horses on the Skibbereen coorse whin you're a standin'
still and a watchin' thim right foreninst you."

"Aye, that we will, McCarthy," chimed in Captain Dinks, now all good
humour again, chuckling with anticipated pleasure and rubbing his hands
together gleefully. "I wouldn't wish for a better ship under me in fair
wind or foul than the _Nancy Bell_. Bless her old timbers, she's
staunch and sound from truck to keelson, and the smartest clipper