f chain and rope, so that the _Dazzler_ dropped back a hundred
feet or more, where she rode more easily.

It was a wild stretch of water which Joe looked upon from the shelter of
the cockpit. The oyster-beds were out in the open bay, utterly unprotected,
and the wind, sweeping the water for a clean twelve miles, kicked up so
tremendous a sea that at every moment it seemed as though the wallowing
sloops would roll their masts overside. Just before twilight a patch of
sail sprang up to windward, and grew and grew until it resolved itself
into the huge mainsail of the _Reindeer_.

"Ze beeg fool!" French Pete cried, running out of the cabin to see.
"Sometime--ah, sometime, I tell you--he crack on like dat, an' he go,
pouf! just like dat, pouf!--an' no more Nelson, no more _Reindeer_, no
more nothing."

Joe looked inquiringly at 'Frisco Kid.

"That 's right," he answered. "Nelson ought to have at least one reef
in. Two 'd be better. But there he goes, every inch spread, as though
some fiend was after 'im. He drives too hard; he 's too reckless, when
there ain't the smallest need for it. I 've sailed with him, and I know
his ways."

Like some huge bird of the air, the _Reindeer_ lifted and soared down
on them on the foaming crest of a wave.

"Don't mind," 'Frisco Kid warned. "He 's only tryin' to see how close
he can come to us without hittin' us."

Joe nodded, and stared with wide eyes at the thrilling sight. The
_Reindeer_ leaped up in the air, pointing her nose to the sky till
they could see her whole churning forefoot; then she plunged downward
till her for'ard deck was flush with the foam, and with a dizzying rush
she drove past them, her main-boom missing the _Dazzler's_ rigging by
scarcely a foot.

Nelson, at the wheel, waved his hand to them as he hurtled past,
and laughed joyously in French Pete's face, who was angered by the
dangerous trick.

When to leeward, the splendid craft rounded to the wind, rolling once
till her brown bottom showed to the centerboard and they thought she
was over, then righting and dashing ahead again like a thing possessed.
She passed abreast of them on the starboard side. They saw the jib run
down with a rush and an anchor go overboard as she shot into the wind;
and as she fell off and back and off and back with a spilling mainsail,
they saw a second anchor go overboard, wide apart from the first. Then
the mainsail came down on the run, and was furled and fastened by the
time s