deck. However--`better late than never'--
they were now quickly let go, and the braces on the weather side being
manned, the yards were squared. It was a job of some difficulty,
although accomplished at length, the ship showing herself all the better
for the operation by running easier and not staggering and yawing so
much as she raced along.

This was the first step.

The next was to stop the uproar aloft, and create a little order amidst
the chaos that there reigned, which was a much harder and far more
ticklish task, it being perilous in the extreme, and almost useless, for
any of the hands to venture up the rigging; for the wind was blowing
with such terrific force that they could not have possibly lain out on
the yards, even if they succeeded in reaching the futtock shrouds.

It was no good shouting to the men.

As I said before, they could not hear a word spoken, had it been bawled
in the loudest tone; so, Mr Flinders managed to explain his purpose by
signs, or some other means that I could not at the moment guess, for Tom
Bullover and the rest of the crew at once commenced hauling on the
maintopsail sheets.

The effect of this was almost instantaneous.

Puckering up into a bag where, as I mentioned, the clew had fouled the
reef points, the sail burst `bang' out of the boltropes with a noise
like thunder; and, then, carried forwards by the gale, it floated away
ahead, fortunately just clearing the foretopmast, which might have been
broken by the extra strain--the fluttering mass of canvas finally
disappearing, like a white kite, in the distance in the water ahead of
the ship.

Getting rid of this sail was even a greater relief to the over-driven
vessel than squaring the yards had been, a consequence which the
first-mate and carpenter had fully anticipated when the sheets were
manned; so, a similar procedure was adopted with the fore-topsail, and a
like happy result followed, the ship still driving on before the wind,
very nearly at as great a rate as she had done before, although under
bare poles almost.

But she now steered more easily, not taking in such a lot of water
aboard when she rolled, while the spars ceased to sway about, and it
looked as if we should save them, which had seemed impossible a short
time previously, from the ugly way in which the shrouds tightened, and
the after-stays sung, as if they were stretched to the last limit,
showing that the slightest increase of the strain on them wo