the ebb was
commencing, there was need for hurry if we cared to escape waiting half
a day for the next tide.

But the land breeze had begun to die away with the rising sun, and now
came only in failing puffs. The salmon boat got out its oars and soon
left us far astern. Some of the Chinese stood in the forward part of
the cockpit, near the cabin doors, and once, as I leaned over the
cockpit rail to flatten down the jib-sheet a bit, I felt some one brush
against my hip pocket. I made no sign, but out of the corner of my eye
I saw that the Yellow Handkerchief had discovered the emptiness of the
pocket which had hitherto overawed him.

To make matters serious, during all the excitement of boarding the
junks the _Reindeer_ had not been bailed, and the water was beginning
to slush over the cockpit floor. The shrimp-catchers pointed at it and
looked to me questioningly.

"Yes," I said. "Bime by, allee same dlown, velly quick, you no bail
now. Sabbe?"

No, they did not "sabbe," or at least they shook their heads to that
effect, though they chattered most comprehendingly to one another in
their own lingo. I pulled up three or four of the bottom boards, got a
couple of buckets from a locker, and by unmistakable sign-language
invited them to fall to. But they laughed, and some crowded into the
cabin and some climbed up on top.

Their laughter was not good laughter. There was a hint of menace in it,
a maliciousness which their black looks verified. The Yellow
Handkerchief, since his discovery of my empty pocket, had become most
insolent in his bearing, and he wormed about among the other prisoners,
talking to them with great earnestness.

Swallowing my chagrin, I stepped down into the cockpit and began
throwing out the water. But hardly had I begun, when the boom swung
overhead, the mainsail filled with a jerk, and the _Reindeer_ heeled
over. The day wind was springing up. George was the veriest of
landlubbers, so I was forced to give over bailing and take the tiller.
The wind was blowing directly off Point Pedro and the high mountains
behind, and because of this was squally and uncertain, half the time
bellying the canvas out, and the other half flapping it idly.

George was about the most all-round helpless man I had ever met. Among
his other disabilities, he was a consumptive, and I knew that if he
attempted to bail, it might bring on a hemorrhage. Yet the rising water
warned me that something must be done. Again I ord