Scott!" he cried again, "so it is! Call all hands. Hands 'bout
ship!" Then he turned to the man at the wheel, who was the Russian Finn
the bo'sun objected to as unlucky, "Keep her clean full for stays."

The men came tumbling out from the holes and corners where they had
stowed away, and the watch below came up growling audibly at having
their rest disturbed, but none apparently understanding the danger
of the situation. It is all in the day's work that a sailor should be
disturbed before he has had more than a taste of the bliss of sleep. The
wild tumbling waters and the shrieking wind told them no tale; they
only thought the wind had gone round and freshened a bit since they went
below.

Harper standing on the fife rail at the crojack braces could have told
them a different story. Clearly he saw the danger. There ahead, a little
to leeward, were the long line of breakers; even in this pitchy darkness
he could see their white foam-topped crests against the inky water; he
fancied that even above the roaring of the wind through the rigging he
could distinguish the crash with which they flung themselves hungrily
against the rocks, the long-drawn sob as of disappointment with which
they fell back into the sea again, there to gather strength for a fresh
onslaught. Above them was the loom of the land showing only like thick
cloud-bank against the horizon, and the bright light beckoning, it
seemed, with friendly hands.

"Ready about!" shouted the skipper.

"O--o--oh, o--o--oh, o--o--oh!" sang the men at the braces in mournful
monotone. Bang went the wet sail against the mast, and the second
mate from his vantage point watched her slowly come up to wind.
Slowly--slowly--the towering seas came pouring aboard--she took it in
by the deck-house by ton loads, and the men all hung on to the nearest
thing handy for dear life. Slowly, slowly her nose came up to the wind.
Would she go round? Would she? Would she?

"Gummy!" he heard the bo'sun's voice near him in the darkness, and above
all the din; "she is a blanked old bathing machine, ain't she?"

Nobody disputed the fact. Would she come round? Would she? Would she?
Surely she was coming.

Then there was a pause for a brief second. Every man in that pause, it
seemed, realized the gravity of the situation.

By Jingo! Will she come? Will she not?

Then the hoarse voice of the skipper broke in.

"Up with your helm, hard up! Flatten in your head sheets! Haul in your
weather c