ll, the men were so vexed that they would have liked to have scuttled
her. I was glad I hadn't suggested their taking to the oars, or perhaps
they might have turned on me for making them toil so when it wasn't
necessary; but of course I wasn't to blame, and they knew that.

"Having no authority to stop her, I was obliged to let the dhow proceed
on her way, while we lay-to for the night in a sheltered creek under the
lee of Saint Juan; for it was now getting dark, and the navigation being
rather treacherous with a lot of coral reefs about, I thought it best to
wait for daylight before we did any more cruising.

"On the wind rising again, towards midnight, I anchored the pinnace
about a cable's-length off the beach, where we were pretty secure from
drifting ashore on account of the tide setting the other way. Towards
morning, however, it came on to blow more strongly, and as the boat
rocked uneasily I hauled up the kedge again, for it was bad holding
ground, the tackle chafing against the coral banks and sawing away in a
manner that promised to make it part if it remained down much longer,
the boat's head bobbing down and up every wave with a jerk that must
snap our painter in time.

"Setting the mainsail reefed, and a small storm-staysail forwards, we
ran before the wind, which had now increased to a gale, blowing stiffly,
as it had done in the early part of the day before, from the south-west.
It was of no use trying to lay-to in the open sea, for the rollers were
too heavy for the boat to ride over, so we bore right away across the
channel towards the north part of Madagascar, having a clear space of
water in front of us with no chance of running ashore, for the next
twenty-four hours or so at all events, if we kept on to the same point
of the compass that the wind was now carrying us to. The pinnace being
a good sea-boat, we were all right otherwise, that was, unless the gale
shifted, when we would be driven back on to the rocky reef which
encircled the Comoro Islands, and no doubt go to pieces there.

"`Let her drive,' said I to the men, whom I kept baling out the
occasional seas that came in over the weather gunwale. `As long as she
keeps on running like this we can come to no harm, but you mustn't stop
baling, for if she once gets waterlogged she'll founder and then we'll
all be lost.'

"This made them stick to it, although most of them were tired out with
the long pull they had had in the afternoon after t