re I would have had trouble in finding her.
It was the darkest kind of a night and it _did_ blow great guns! The
rain pelted as sharp as hail and before I got half way to the sloop I
decided that I wasn't showing very good sense, after all, in coming out
here on such a night. I didn't think Paul and his friends would venture
forth in such a storm.

However, having once set out to do a thing I have usually run the full
course. I am not sure that it is natural perseverance in my case, but
fear that I am more often ashamed to be considered fickle. So I sculled
on to the Wavecrest and prepared to go aboard.

But just here I bethought me that if my cousin should attempt to board
the sloop he would be warned that I was aboard by the presence of the
tender. Therefore I snubbed the nose of the rowboat up short to the
float, and then, after getting into the bows of the Wavecrest I let go
her cable and paid out several yards so that the float and the tender
were both out of sight in the darkness.

I chuckled then, as I crept aft to the cockpit and unlocked the door of
the little cabin. Once inside, out of the rain, I drew curtains before
all the lights and then lit the lamp over the cabin table. There were
four berths, two on each side, with lockers fore and aft. Altogether the
cabin of the Wavecrest was cozy and not a bad place at all in which to
spend a night.

It was still early in the evening. The tide had not long since turned
and was running out, while the wind out of its present quarter was with
the tide. Any craft could sail out of Bolderhead harbor this night with
both gale and sea in its favor; but heaven help the vessel striving to
beat into the inlet! The reefs and ledges along this coast are as
dangerous as any down on the charts.

The Wavecrest pitched a good bit at the end of her cable. I made up my
bed and arranged the lamp in its gimbals near the head of the berth, and
so took off my outer clothing and lay down to read. I did not think that
the lamplight could be seen from without, even if a boat came quite near
me. Being so far in-shore I had lit no riding light. It was unnecessary
at these moorings.

I did not read for long. Used to the swing of the sea as I had been for
years the bucking of the Wavecrest as she tugged at her cable, put me
to sleep before I had any idea that I was sleepy. And my lamp was left
burning.

I do not know how long I was unconscious--at least, I did not know at
the moment of