r, call Masters!"

"Bo'sun, pipe all hands to hoist spars aboard!" These orders were
roared out by Mr Fosset in rapid succession, and then in equally rapid
sequences came the boatswain's whistle and hail to the men down the
hatchway just along the deck.

All had a rare time of it, and an amount of "yoho-hoes-hoing" went round
that it would have done anybody's heart good to hear; the first mate was
bellowing out his orders and old Masters seeing to their proper
execution by the busy hands and active feet, the skipper meanwhile
standing on the poop, superintending matters with his keen eye, and woe
to the lubber who bungled at a hitch or left a rope's end loose or brace
slack!

CHAPTER TWELVE.

BOAT AHOY!

By the time the sun was near the meridian our top-masts were up and the
upper yards swayed aloft and crossed, making the old barquey all ataunto
again and pretty nearly her old self, our broken bulwarks and smashed
skylight betraying the only damage done by the storm, on deck, at all
events.

"I `calculate,' Fosset, as our Yankee friends would say, we may now cry
spell O!" observed the skipper, who was highly pleased with the progress
made in refitting the ship. "Tell the bo'sun to pipe the hands to
dinner, and you and I had better go up on the bridge and see what we can
do in the way of determining our position on the chart. That gulf-weed
must have lost its bearings, I'm sure. It seems impossible to me that
we could have drifted so far to the south as to bring us in the Stream!"

"An observation will soon settle the point, sir," replied the first
mate, passing the word to Masters to knock off work. "Run down,
Haldane, and get my sextant for me, there's a good chap! I left it on
the cabin table, all ready. You'll find it there!"

"Belay, there!" sang out the skipper, as I started off towards the
companion-way. "You may as well bring mine, too, while you're about it.
Two heads are better than one, eh, Fosset?"

"Yes, sir, perhaps so," rejoined the other, before I got out of earshot.
"It seems, though, as if we're going to have three on the job; for here
comes Mr O'Neil with his sextant under his arm, evidently bent on the
same errand!"

I soon was back with the instruments for the other two, and presently
all three were at work taking the sun's altitude and measuring off the
angle made by the luminary with the horizon.

A short delay ensued from our clocks being fast on account of our having
d