-forenoon half a gale was blowing.

"We're makin' fine headway," said Toby. "We'll be getting to Double Up
Cove by twelve o'clock, _what_ever."

"I'm wishin' 'twere a bit calmer," observed Skipper Zeb, looking
critically at the sky, "but there's no signs of un."

"Can't we make a landin' somewhere, and wait for un to calm down?" asked
Mrs. Twig solicitously. "I fears cruisin' when 'tis so rough."

"They's no fair shore to land on this side o' the Duck's Head," answers
Skipper Zeb.

White horses were chasing each other over the surrounding sea. A half
hour later the wind had developed into a gale. Skipper Zeb reefed the
mainsail. Then taking a long oar from the boat, he dropped it between
two pegs astern, and while he used this as a sculling oar to steer the
boat, Toby unshipped the rudder and dragged it aboard.

"She's makin' leeway," Skipper Zeb explained, "and I can hold she up to
the wind better with the oar than the tiller."

A roller broke over the boat, and left a foot of water in the bottom.
Toby seized a bucket, and began to bail it out. Charley was now
thoroughly frightened, but with a bucket thrust into his hand by Mrs.
Twig, he assisted Toby.

The boat was on her beam ends, even with shortened sail. The air was
filled with flying spray, and now came the snow that Skipper Zeb had
predicted.

"We'll make a landin' in the lee of the Duck's Head," shouted Skipper
Zeb, his voice booming above the tumult of sea and wind.

Violet was crying, and clinging to her mother.

"Don't be scared, now!" Skipper Zeb reassured, though he was plainly
anxious. "There'll be a fine lee above the Duck's Head!"

"There's the Duck's Head!" Toby's voice suddenly came in warning.

"I sees un!" Skipper Zeb shouted back in confirmation.

"Take care the reef! She's straight ahead!" yelled Toby.

"She's makin' leeway the best I can do," came back from Skipper Zeb.
"Lend me a hand, Toby!"

Toby sprang to his assistance. The long oar bent under the superhuman
effort that the two put forth, but the boat was coming up. Charley saw,
in dim outline through the snow, a high, black mass of rock jutting out
in a long point. It bore a strong resemblance to a duck's neck and head,
and as though to form the duck's bill a reef extended for several yards
beyond into the water and over this the sea with boom and roar heaved in
mighty breakers, sending the spray a hundred feet into the air. If they
failed to pass that awful boiling caldr