rd again.

"Given 'em something to talk about," chuckled Lund. "Carlsen wanted to
show off his fancy shootin'. Wal, I've shown 'em I ain't entirely
wrecked if I ain't carryin' lights. An' I slipped more'n one over on
Carlsen at that."

Rainey did not catch his entire meaning and said nothing.

"Did you get wise to the play about the shells?" asked Lund. "A smart
trick, though Deming almost tumbled. Carlsen got those dumb fools of
hunters to fire away every shell they happened to have for'ard. If the
magazine's empty, I'll bet Carlsen knows where they's plenty more
shells, if we ever needed 'em bad. But now those rifles an' shotguns
ain't no more use than so many clubs--_not to the hunters_. An' he's
found out they ain't got enny pistols. _He's_ got one, an' shows 'em how
straight he shoots, jest in case there should be enny trubble between
'em. Plays both ends to the middle, does Carlsen. Slick! But he ain't
won the pot. They's a joker in this game. Mebbe he holds it, mebbe not."

He nodded mysteriously, well pleased with himself.

"Don't suppose _you_ brought a gun along with ye?" he asked Rainey.
"Might come in handy."

"I wasn't expecting to stay," Rainey replied dryly, "or I might have."

Lund laughed heartily, slapping his leg.

"That's a good un," he declared. "It would have bin a good idea, though.
It sure pays to go heeled when you travel with strangers."

CHAPTER IV

THE BOWHEAD

Captain Simms appeared again in the cabin and on deck, but he was not
the same man. His illness seemed to have robbed him permanently of what
was left him of the spring of manhood. It was as if his juices had been
sucked from his veins and arteries and tissues, leaving him flabby,
irresolute, compared to his former self. Even as Lund shadowed Rainey,
so Simms shadowed Carlsen.

The fine weather vanished, snuffed out in an hour and, day after day,
the _Karluk_ flung herself at mocking seas that pounded her bows with
blows that sounded like the noise of a giant's drum. The sun was never
seen. Through daylight hours the schooner wrestled with the elements in
a ghastly, purplish twilight, lifting under double reefs over great
waves that raised spuming crests to overwhelm her, and were ridden down,
hissing and roaring, burying one rail and covering the deck to the
hatches with yeasty turmoil.

The _Karluk_ charged the stubborn fury of the gale, rolling from side to
side, lancing the seas, gaining a little headway, lo