up to windward, the
boat gathered way and darted off upon a course that was as nearly as
might be due north-west, lying well down to it, with the spray from the
short, choppy seas that the squall instantly whipped up showering in
over her sharp weather bow at every plunge, and quickly drenching us to
the skin. But there was worse to come, for the wind was freshening
every moment and rapidly kicking up a short, steep, choppy sea, the
surges of which smothered us with spray as the gig leaped viciously at
them under the steadily increasing pressure of the wind upon her
close-reefed lugsail; so that within a very few minutes it was taking
one hand all his time to keep the boat free of water by continually
baling with the bucket, although we eased the craft as much as possible
by keeping the weather-leech of the sail ashiver most of the time.

"Just our luck!" growled the boatswain, as he slacked the sheet to a
still fiercer puff. "If this had been a fair wind, now, we could have
shown whole canvas to it, and would have been reelin' off our seven, or
even eight knots as easily as possible. But, as it is, we can't make no
headway agin it; and the time ain't far off, in my opinion, when we'll
have to up stick and run afore it."

"We'll not do that until we are obliged," said I. "I don't feel at all
like losing, in the course of two or three hours, the ground that we
have made by the hardest day's work that I ever did in my life. No,
Murdock, when we can't face it any longer we will lash the oars together
and ride to them as a sea anchor at the full scope of our painter. They
will keep the boat head-on to wind and sea, and we shall ride as
comfortably that way as any other; while, although our drift will
probably amount to as much as three knots every hour, we shall not lose
nearly as much ground as we should by scudding before--"

I was interrupted by the sailmaker, who was sitting far enough forward
to be able to see some distance past the luff of the sail. Seaman-like,
he was instinctively keeping a lookout, and he now suddenly turned and
yelled:

"Sail ho! close aboard on the lee bow. Hard up, Mr Temple; hard up,
sir, and keep her broad away, or that chap'll run us down."

There was an urgency and imperativeness in the man's tones which made it
clear enough that there was no time for investigation. I therefore did
the only thing that remained to be done under the circumstances, namely,
trusted to the correctn