nd when this overtakes a craft, large or small, which
is only beginning to gather fresh headway, the result is practically the
same as though she were going astern instead of ahead, and the helm must
be manipulated accordingly. Whether this is really the true explanation
of the curiously awkward phenomenon of which I have spoken I cannot say;
but I know that the phenomenon occurs, and that it placed us in
the direst peril at least half a hundred times during that
never-to-be-forgotten night, a peril from which, it appeared to me, we
each time escaped by the very skin of our teeth, and by what seemed to
be nothing short of a series of miracles. True, we are told that the
days of miracles are long past; but, after all, who knows?

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE "MARTHA BROWN" OF BALTIMORE.

All through the night, and until nearly noon next day, were we compelled
to continue scudding before the gale; and a pretty crew of scarecrows we
looked when the morning at length dawned and disclosed us to each
other's vision, drenched to the skin with flying spray, haggard and
red-eyed with fatigue and the want of sleep, and each wearing that
peculiar and indescribable expression of countenance that marks the man
who has been face to face for hours with imminent death. But about four
bells in the forenoon watch the gale suddenly broke, the sky cleared,
and the wind moderated so rapidly that just before noon, by carefully
watching our opportunity, we were at length able to round-to and once
more ride to our makeshift sea anchor. Then, the boat riding dry--that
is to say, shipping no water--we baled her out, and next proceeded to
overhaul our stock of provisions, with the object of ascertaining what
damage, if any, it had sustained through the constant drenching of the
seas to which we had been exposed. Our bread--or biscuit--and water
were all that we were really anxious about, the remainder being packed
in tins, jars, or bottles, and it was a great relief to us to find that,
thanks to the precautions which we had taken, nothing had suffered to
any very serious extent.

Then I went to work to calculate our position as nearly as I could,
although the roughness of my data rendered it exceedingly difficult to
arrive anywhere near the mark; but at length, by patient and careful
figuring, I reached the exceedingly unsatisfactory conclusion that not
only had we lost all the ground previously gained, but we were somewhere
about thirty miles