st she was traveling. For a moment or two there was an oppressive
silence in the little cabin. Then Wyllard spoke again.

"You have been running to the eastwards since I was struck down?" he
asked.

Dampier nodded. "Three days," he confessed. "Just now the breeze is on
her quarter."

He winced under Wyllard's gaze, and spread out his hands with a
deprecating gesture.

"Now," he added, "what else was there I could do? She wrung her masthead
off when you jibed her and there's not stick enough left to set any
canvas that would shove her to windward. I might have hove her to, but
the first time the breeze hauled easterly she'd have gone up on the
beach or among the ice with us. I had to run!"

Wyllard closed a feeble hand. "Dunton was crippled, too. It's almost
incredible."

"In one way, it looks like that, but, after all, a jibe's quite a common
thing with a fore-and-after. If you run her off to lee when she's going
before it, her mainboom's bound to come over. Of course, nobody would
run her off in a wicked breeze unless he had to, but you'd no choice
with the ice in front of you."

Wyllard lay very still for a minute. It was clear to him that his
project must be abandoned for that season, which meant that at least six
months must elapse before he could even approach the Kamtchatkan coast
again.

"Well," he inquired at length, "what do you mean to do?"

"If the breeze holds we could pick up one of the Aleutians in a few
days, but I'm keeping south of the islands. There'll probably be ugly
ice along the beaches, and I've no fancy for being cast ashore by a
strong tide when the fog lies on the land. With westerly winds I'd
sooner hold on for Alaska. We could lie snug in an inlet there, and,
it's quite likely, get a cedar that would make a spar. I can't head
right away for Vancouver with no mainsail."

This was clear to Wyllard, who made a weak gesture. "If the wind comes
easterly?"

Dampier pursed up his lips. "Then, unless I could fetch one of the
Kuriles, we'd sure be jammed. She won't beat to windward, and there'd be
all Kamtchatka to lee of us. The ice is packing up along the north of it
now, and the Russians have two or three settlements to the south. We
don't want to run in and tell them what we're after."

A faint smile touched Wyllard's lips. "No," he said, "not after that
little affair on the beach. Since it's very probable that the vessel
they send up to the seal islands would deliver store along t