t be mastered
somehow, though it was snow-soaked and almost unyielding, and with
bleeding hands he clawed at it furiously while twice the bowsprit raked
a sea and dipped him waist-deep into the water. At last, the other man
flung him the end of the gasket, and they worked back carefully, leaving
the sail lashed down, and scrambled aft to help the others who were
making the big main-boom fast. When this was done Wyllard fell against
Dampier and clutched at him.

"How's the wind?" he roared.

"Northeast," answered the skipper.

They could scarcely hear each other, though the schooner was lurching
over it more easily now with shortened canvas, and Wyllard made Dampier
understand that he wished to speak to him only by thrusting him towards
the deck-house door. They went in together, and stood clutching at the
table with the lamplight on their tense, wet faces and the brine that
ran from them making pools upon the deck.

"The wind has hauled round," said the skipper, "the wrong way."

Wyllard made a savage gesture. "We've had it from the last quarter we
wanted ever since we sailed, and we sailed nearly three months too late.
We're too close in to the beach for you to heave her to?"

"A sure thing," agreed Dampier. "I was driving her to work off it with
the sea getting up when the breeze burst on us. She put her rail right
under, and we had to let go 'most everything before she'd pick it up.
She's pointing somewhere north, jammed right up on the starboard tack
just now, but I can't stand on."

This was evident to Wyllard, and he closed one hand tight. He wanted to
stand on as long as possible before the ice closed in, but he realized
that to do so would put the schooner ashore.

"Well?" he questioned sharply.

Dampier made a grimace. "I'm going out to heave her round. If we'd any
sense in us we'd square off the boom then, and leg it away across the
Pacific for Vancouver."

"In that case," observed Wyllard, "somebody would lose his bonus."

The skipper swung around on him with a flash in his eyes. "The bonus!"
he repeated. "Who was it came for you with two dollars in his pocket
after he'd bought his ticket from Vancouver?"

Wyllard smiled at him. "If you took that up the wrong way I'm sorry. She
ought to work off on the port track, and when we've open water to
leeward you can heave her to. When it moderates we can pick up the beach
again."

"That's just what I mean to do."

Dampier went out on deck, while Wyl