o effort to dissuade her from the
strenuous labor--every ounce of weight would help so much, and the man
had a wild, mad idea that he was attempting to put into effect.

"What do you hope to do?" asked the girl. "Make that opening in the
cliffs?"

Theriere nodded.

"Do you think me crazy?" he asked.

"It is such a chance as only a brave man would dare to take," she
replied. "Do you think that we can get her to take it?"

"I doubt it," he answered. "With another man at the wheel we might,
though."

Below them the crew of the Halfmoon ran hither and thither along the
deck on the side away from the breakers. They fought with one another
for useless bits of planking and cordage. The giant figure of the black
cook, Blanco, rose above the others. In his hand was a huge butcher
knife. When he saw a piece of wood he coveted in the hands of another he
rushed upon his helpless victim with wild, bestial howls, menacing him
with his gleaming weapon. Thus he was rapidly accumulating the material
for a life raft.

But there was a single figure upon the deck that did not seem mad with
terror. A huge fellow he was who stood leaning against the capstan
watching the wild antics of his fellows with a certain wondering
expression of incredulity, the while a contemptuous smile curled his
lips. As Barbara Harding chanced to look in his direction he also
chanced to turn his eyes toward the wheelhouse. It was the mucker.

The girl was surprised that he, the greatest coward of them all, should
be showing no signs of cowardice now--probably he was paralyzed with
fright. The moment that the man saw the two who were in the wheelhouse
and the work that they were doing he sprang quickly toward them. At his
approach the girl shrank closer to Theriere.

What new outrage did the fellow contemplate? Now he was beside her. The
habitual dark scowl blackened his expression. He laid a heavy hand on
Barbara Harding's arm.

"Come out o' dat," he bellowed. "Dat's no kind o' job fer a broiler."

And before either she or Theriere could guess his intention the mucker
had pushed Barbara aside and taken her place at the wheel.

"Good for you, Byrne!" cried Theriere. "I needed you badly."

"Why didn't yeh say so den?" growled the man.

With the aid of Byrne's Herculean muscles and great weight the bow
of the Halfmoon commenced to come slowly around so that presently she
almost paralleled the cliffs again, but now she was much closer in than
when Sk