ers many times.' And I
filled me lungs and let out a blast that fetched everybody on deck on
the other launch. Then I tould that skipper, with rage in me throat,
that he must up anchor and folley us or be drownded with all his
passengers dragging on his coattails through purgat'ry. And he listened,
and prisintly we saw the _Gladys_ creep through the darkness and fog up
till us. When she crossed our stern me bould Tad tould me to command her
to folley us into port.

"Ravin's and ragin's were nothin' to the language we traded across that
watther for the five minutes necessary to knock loose the wits of that
heathen mariner. In the end he saw the light, and the passengers that
crowded his sloppy decks waved their arms and yelled with delight. Me
bould Tad went into the little pilot house and slammed the door. He
spoke to me sharply. ''Twill blow a gale before midnight.' He rang the
bell for full speed ahead.

[Illustration: "I WENT TO LEEWARD AND THERE FOUND ME BOULD TAD LAUNCHIN'
THE LITTLE DINGY"]

"An hour later I was signaled to stop me machines. I dropped the clutch
and sint me assistant for news. He came back with big eyes. 'The leader
says the other launch can't make it across the bar,' he reports.

"'Well,' I says.

"'We're goin' to take off her passengers and cross it oursilves,' says
the brat. With that he vanishes. I folleyed him.

"We were stopped right in the fog, with roily waves towerin' past us and
the dull noise of the bar ahead of us. The _Gladys_ was right astern of
us, and even in the darkness I cud catch a glimpse of white faces and
hear little screams of women. I went to leeward and there found me bould
Tad launchin' the little dingy that was stowed on the roof of the cabin.
Whin it was overside four of me bould gang drops into it and pulls away
for the other launch. 'They'll be swamped and drownded,' I remar-rks.

"'They will not,' says Tad. 'I trained thim mesilf. 'Tis child's play.'

"'Childher play with queer toys in this counthry,' I continues to
mesilf; and I had a pain in me pit to see thim careerin' on the big
waves that looked nigh to breakin' any minute. But they came back with
three women and a baby, with nothin' to say excipt: 'There's thirty-one
of thim, leader!'

"'Leave the min,' says he, real sharp. 'Tell the captain we'll come back
for thim after we've landed the women safe.'

"I tucked the women down in the afther cabin, snug and warm, and wint
back on deck. The boat was