ou in the least, or you and I 'll part brass
rags."

The boy scurried below and returned with the lamp retrimmed. He slipped
the light into the binnacle and looked doubtfully at the second mate. It
was dull and he was inclined to talk, but after his late rebuff hardly
dared. Harper began to pace up and down again, and the boy stowed
himself under the lee of the house, volunteering the information as he
passed the mate.

"Bo'sun says the wind 's goin' to shift ahead."

"You be hanged, and the bo'sun too!"

But before an hour had gone by he was obliged to acknowledge that the
bo'sun's weather prophecies were very correct, for the wind shifted
point after point till it was right ahead and blowing half a gale.
Harper looked aloft and noted the clouds scurrying across the sky.
Heavier and heavier they were growing to wind'ard.

"By Jove!" he muttered to himself, "we 're in for a nasty night."

Suddenly the lookout man reported, "Light right ahead, sir."

Harper stepped forward to the skylight and peered down into the cabin,
dimly lighted by an oil lamp. It was a bare enough little place at best,
but it looked comfort itself as contrasted with the wet decks above. The
skipper was lying on a settee sound asleep, one hairy arm thrown out,
and on the table meditatively surveying him was Dinah, the ship's cat.

"Hallo there!" reported the mate through the skylight; "light right
ahead, sir."

Very lazily he rolled off the sofa, scared puss out of her senses by a
rough sweep of his hand, and came up on deck.

"Great Scott!" he growled, "what a night!" Then he took a squint through
his night glasses.

"Oh, yes, mister," he said, "that's all right. It's just a small
light--a leading mark for the small craft going into the creek there for
lime. Fixed white light, I heard of it the day before we left. It's deep
water right up. We'll go right in, mister, and make a long board of it
on the next tack."

The moon was completely hidden now, and both men hanging over the break
of the the poop could see nothing but the bright light right ahead.

"It looks small, sir," ventured Harper, taking another look through his
glasses.

"Didn't I tell ye it was small? If ye will be for ever--"

Harper still looked steadily through his glasses.

"By the Lord! sir, that looks uncommonly like a line of breakers!
There--to port!"

The skipper made one hesitating step forward, and then the truth flashed
on him like lightning.

"Great