hing in the fleet go by her. And red and green lights were racing
to both quarters of her.

"Into the boat!" It was the skipper's voice again, and fifteen men
leaped over the rail at the word. Two dropped into the dory and
thirteen jumped from the vessel's rail onto thwarts or netting or into
the bottom of the seine-boat--anywhere at all so that they get in
quickly. As extra hand on deck I had to stand by and pay out the
painter.

In the middle of it came the skipper sliding down from the mast-head.
"Drop astern, boat and dory," he called out, and himself leaped over
the quarter and onto the pile of netting as into the Johnnie's boiling
wake they went. The thirty-eight-foot seine-boat was checked up a
dozen fathoms astern, and the dory just astern of that. The two men in
the dory had to fend off desperately as they slid by the seine-boat.

On the deck of the Johnnie were the cook, who had the wheel, and
myself, who had to stand by the sheets. There would be stirring times
soon, for even from the deck occasional flashes of light, marking
small pods of mackerel, could be made out on the surface of the sea.
Clancy, now at the mast-head alone, was noting these signs, we felt
sure, and with them a whole lot of other things. To the mast-heads of
other vessels out in the night were other skippers, or seine-masters,
and all with skill and nerve and a great will to get fish.

The Johnnie was making perhaps ten knots good now, and with every jerk
the painter of the seine-boat chafed and groaned in the taffrail
chock. The skipper from the boat called for more line. "Slack away a
bit, slack away. We're not porpoises."

I jumped to attend to the painter just as Clancy's voice broke in from
above: "Swing her off about two points, ease your main sheet and keep
an eye on that light to looard. Off, off--that's good--hold her--and
Joe, slack stays'l and then foretops'l halyards. Be ready to let go
balloon halyards and stand by down-haul. Look alive."

I paid out some sheet from the bitt by the wheel-box, unbuttoned the
after stays'l tack, jumped forward and loosed up halyards till her
kites dropped limp.

"Down with your balloon there--and at the wheel there, jibe her over.
Watch out for that fellow astern--he's pretty handy to our boat. Watch
out in boat and dory!" The last warning was a roar.

The big balloon gossamer came rattling down the long stay and the jaws
of the booms ratched, fore and main, as they swung over. From as