er full an' nae mair! Goad,
man! Steer as ye never steered ... th' wind's yer mairk.... Goad!
D'na shake her!"

Grasping the binnacle to steady himself against the wild lurches of the
staggering hull, the Old Man stared steadily aloft, unheeding the roar
and crash of the breakers, now loud over all--eyes only for the
straining canvas and standing spars above him.

"She's drawin' ahead, Sir," shouted M'Kellar, tense, excited. "East,
b' nor' ... an' fast!"

The Old Man raised a warning hand to the steersman. "Nae higher! Nae
higher! Goad, man! Dinna let 'r gripe!"

Dread suspense! Would she clear? A narrow lane of open water lay
clear of the bow--broadening as we sped on.

"Nae higher! Nae higher! Aff! Aff! Up hellum, up!" His voice a
scream, the Old Man turned to bear a frantic heave on the spokes.

Obedient to the helm and the Mate's ready hand at the driver sheets,
she flew off, free of the wind and sea--tearing past the towering
rocks, a cable's length to leeward. Shock upon shock, the great
Atlantic sea broke and shattered and fell back from the scarred granite
face of the outmost Stag; a seething maelstrom of tortured waters,
roaring, crashing, shrilling into the deep, jagged fissures--a shriek
of Furies bereft. And, high above the tumult of the waters and the
loud, glad cries of us, the hoarse, choking voice of the man who had
backed his ship.

"Done it, ye bitch!"--a now trembling hand at his old grey head. "Done
it! Weathered--by Goad!"

XXVI

LIKE A MAN!

Spring in the air of it, a bright, keen day, and the mist only strong
enough to soften the bold, rugged outline of Knocknarea, our sailing
mark, towering high and solitary above Sligo Harbour. The strong west
wind that we had fought and bested at the Stags turned friendly, had
blown us fair to our voyage's end, and now, under easy canvas, we
tacked on shore and off, waiting for tide to bear up and float our
twenty feet in safety across the Bar.

At Raghly, our signal for a local pilot was loyally responded to. A
ship of tonnage was clearly a rare sight in these parts, for the entire
male population came off to see us safely in--to make a day of it! Old
pilots and young, fishermen and gossoons, they swept out from creek and
headland in their swift Mayo skiffs, and though only one was Trinity
licensed for our draft of water, the rest remained, to bear willing
hands at the braces on the chance of a job at the cargo being