t-head, so as to be into it before it
was over. He was almost too late--but not quite. Only old Mr. Duncan
coming along with half a dozen other dignified owners stopped it. But
there was time for Clancy to speak his mind out to Sam Hollis. And
that gave Hollis a chance to say, "Well, talk away, Tommie Clancy, but
this is the day I make the Johnnie Duncan take in sail." And Clancy
answered him, "That so! Well, no matter what happens, put this down,
Maurice Blake hangs to his canvas longer than Sam Hollis to-day--hangs
to it or goes over with it or the spars come out of the Johnnie
Duncan."

After the talking was over we thought Hollis would be shamed into
sending a man aloft to mouse his halyards too. But not for Hollis.
That was a little too much for him. Clancy and three or four others
finished attending to our own halyards and overhauling the gear aloft.
Our mains'l was already hoisted and the other three lowers with stops
loosed were all ready to hoist too. The mains'l had been left standing
just as it was when the Johnnie Duncan came in that morning. It was
flat as a board, and I remember how grieved we were when we had to
lower it again because the tug that came to give us a kick out from
the dock could not turn us around with it up--it was blowing so. The
tug captain said he might manage to turn it against the sun, but that
would be bad luck of course, and he knew the crew wouldn't stand for
it, especially with a race like this on hand. It had to be with the
sun; and so we had to lower it again, and when the vessel was turned
around, hoist it again, not forgetting to lash the halyards aloft
again too. But after we'd got it swayed up it didn't set near so well
as before--too baggy to our way of thinking.

XXXI

THE START OF THE RACE

We got away at last and beat out the harbor with the Lucy Foster, the
Colleen Bawn, the Withrow, the Nannie O, and four others. For other
company going out there was a big steam-yacht with Minnie Arkell and
her friends aboard, which did not get out of the harbor. Out by the
Point they shipped a sea and put back, with Minnie Arkell waving her
handkerchief and singing out--"Don't take in any sail, Maurice," as
they turned back. There was also the Eastern Point, a high-sided
stubby steamer, at that time running regularly to Boston; and there
was the New Rochelle, a weak-looking excursioner that might have done
for Long Island Sound, where somebody said she'd just come from, b