* * * * *

On board the _Arangi_, relieved by the lowering of her mainsail, as the
fierceness went out of the wind and the cloudburst of tropic rain began
to fall, Van Horn and Borckman lurched toward each other in the
blackness.

"A double squall," said Van Horn. "Hit us to starboard and to port."

"Must a-split in half just before she hit us," the mate concurred.

"And kept all the rain in the second half--"

Van Horn broke off with an oath.

"Hey! What's the matter along you fella boy?" he shouted to the man at
the wheel.

For the ketch, under her spanker which had just then been flat-hauled,
had come into the wind, emptying her after-sail and permitting her
headsails to fill on the other tack. The _Arangi_ was beginning to work
back approximately over the course she had just traversed. And this
meant that she was going back toward Jerry floundering in the sea. Thus,
the balance, on which his life titubated, was inclined in his favour by
the blunder of a black steersman.

Keeping the _Arangi_ on the new tack, Van Horn set Borckman clearing the
mess of ropes on deck, himself, squatting in the rain, undertaking to
long-splice the tackle he had cut. As the rain thinned, so that the
crackle of it on deck became less noisy, he was attracted by a sound from
out over the water. He suspended the work of his hands to listen, and,
when he recognized Jerry's wailing, sprang to his feet, galvanized into
action.

"The pup's overboard!" he shouted to Borckman. "Back your jib to
wind'ard!"

He sprang aft, scattering a cluster of return boys right and left.

"Hey! You fella boat's crew! Come in spanker sheet! Flatten her down
good fella!"

He darted a look into the binnacle and took a hurried compass bearing of
the sounds Jerry was making.

"Hard down your wheel!" he ordered the helmsman, then leaped to the wheel
and put it down himself, repeating over and over aloud, "Nor'east by east
a quarter, nor'east by east a quarter."

Back and peering into the binnacle, he listened vainly for another wail
from Jerry in the hope of verifying his first hasty bearing. But not
long he waited. Despite the fact that by his manoeuvre the _Arangi_ had
been hove to, he knew that windage and sea-driftage would quickly send
her away from the swimming puppy. He shouted Borckman to come aft and
haul in the whaleboat, while he hurried below for his electric torch and
a boat compass.

The ketch was so small that she was