it was blowing a real gale, and by ten
o'clock something like a hurricane. Just then, to top my terror,
Master Link Andrew came aft to me--the wind seemed to blow him
along--and 'I beg your pardon, Mr. Wilkins,' said he, 'but in my
opinion she's dragging.'

"Just think of it, sir! There was I, in sole charge of a hundred boys
or so, and knowing no more what to do than the ship's cat. . . . She
_was_ dragging, too; sagging foot by foot in towards the dark of
Jennycliff Bay.

"'If you'll take a word from me, sir,' said Link, 'we'd best up sail
and get out of this.'

"'What about the other anchor?' I suggested.

"' Try it if you like,' said he. 'In my belief it won't hold any
more than a tin mustard-pot.'

"Nor did it, when we let go. He came back after a few minutes from
the darkness forward. 'No go,' said he. 'Nothing to do but slip and
clear.'

"There was no question, either, that he spoke sense. 'But where?' I
shouted at him. 'Drake's Island? . . . And who's to do it, even so?'

"'The anchorage is crowded under Drake's Island,' he shouted back.
'It's the devil-among-the-tailors we'd play there, if we ever
fetched. . . . Breakwater's no shelter either.'

"He seemed to whistle to himself for a moment; and the next I heard
him yell out sharply to the boys forward to tumble on the mainsail,
strip her covers off, double-reef and hoist her. He took command
from that moment. While a score of them flew to tackle this job, he
beat his way forward and called on another lot to get out the
staysail. Back he ran again, cursing and calling on all and sundry
to look smart. Next he was at my side ordering me to unlash the
wheel and stand by. 'It's touch-and-go, sir.'

"'Hadn't we better send up a flare?' I suggested feebly.

"'Flare your bloomin' grandmother!' From this moment I regret to say
that Link Andrew treated me with contempt. He next ordered a dozen
small boys aloft, to reef and set her upper square-sail. When I
urged that it was as good as asking them to commit suicide, he cursed
me openly. 'Drown the poor pups, will I? I thought--damn you all!--
you laid yourselves out to breed seamen! You _say_ you do, at
prize-givings!' He ran forward again to get the hawsers buoyed
before slipping them.

"I never remember a sound more sickening to the stomach than those
chains made as they ran out through the hawse-holes. The one mistake
Link committed was in ordering the upper square-sail to be reefed