e sea would surely wash out.

That loose water flopping around her deck--that was no harm. "Tarpaulin
her hatches, clamp 'em down, and let her roll!"--that had been Captain
Norman's word coming out of Hampton Roads. And "Batten her down and let
her plug into it!" had come roaring across to us at almost the same
moment from the deck of the _Orion_. And no more than into the open
Atlantic than we were plugging into it. The sea came mounting up over
our low lee-rails--up, up our swash-swept decks, clear across us
sometimes, when for a moment a doubtful helmsman would let her ship an
extra cargo. But, again, no harm in that. Let 'em slosh and let 'em
roll--we were standing up, the pair of us, like two brick houses. And
the rest didn't matter. And so almost forgetting Drislane's trouble in
the strain of the race, we batted our way through the winter seas on
which the sun was dancing--batted and slatted, plugged and slugged our
way beside the _Orion_ for the New England coast.

Two vessels may be built alike and rigged alike, but that doesn't mean
they will sail alike. The _Orion_, in the judgment of seafaring folk,
was a shade faster reaching and running than the _Sirius_. At any rate,
the _Orion_ proved to us that she was faster off the wind than we were
by rounding Cape Cod before us. To there it had been a good passage. No
collier loaded to her scuppers is ever going to break any sailing
records, but hard driving had brought the pair of us along at a good
clip. So far, fine; but it was to be a beat to windward for the rest of
the way. West-north-west is the course from Cape Cod to Boston, and
west-north-west was where the wind was coming from when it hit us on the
nose as we rounded the Cape.

The _Orion_ might outrun us, the _Sirius_, but to windward there was no
difference except in their masters; and there we had the best of it.
Norman Sickles could get more out of a vessel than his cousin when the
going was bad. Oliver used to claw around deck like a sore-headed bear,
and every now and then go below and have a drink for himself when things
weren't breaking right. Norman took things more quietly, and so taking
them wasn't too busy to grab every little chance that bobbed up.

The _Orion_ stood off on one tack, we on the other, and by and by we
lost her below the horizon; but standing in, after some hours found her
again; and finding her, were pleased to see that we had made up
something on her. We filled away once mo