e suddenness and violence of a squall,
with everything creaking and twanging to the violence of the strain, and
the little craft heeled to it until her lee rail was buried and the
water was halfway up the deck to her tiny skylight; but with a plunge,
like that of a mettlesome horse to the touch of the spur, she darted
forward, burying her sharp bows deep in the heart of the first sea that
came sweeping down upon her, and in another moment she was thrashing
along in the wake of the catamaran like a mad thing, leaping and
plunging with long floaty rushes over the sharply running sea that
overran the ponderous Pacific swell. Within the first five minutes it
became quite clear to Leslie that the catamaran was nowhere compared
with this smart and handsome little ship, for to Dick the former craft
seemed to sag away to leeward like an empty cask, while the cutter
walked up to her as though the other had been at anchor. By the time
that the _Flora_ had overtaken the catamaran, the two craft had gained a
sufficient offing to enable them to fetch the entrance channel on the
next tack, and they accordingly hove about, the cutter whisking round
with a celerity that gave Leslie as much as he could do to trim over the
head sheets in time to catch a turn with them as she paid off on the
other tack. And now the _Flora_ ran away from the catamaran at such a
rate that she had reached her anchorage and was just rounding into the
wind to bring up when the other craft passed through the channel and
entered the lagoon. This little trip round from the cove to the lagoon
had not only given the cutter's sails a nice stretching, but it had also
stretched her new rigging to such an extent that Dick saw it would be
quite necessary to set it up afresh all round before he started on his
voyage, if he did not wish to risk the loss of his spars. This,
however, was a matter that would have to wait; he had something of an
even more pressing nature that called for his immediate attention.

By the time that the catamaran had arrived alongside the cutter, the
latter's anchor was down and the jib and foresail taken in. The big
gaff topsail was next hauled down and carefully stowed away, and finally
the mainsail was lowered, stowed, and the coat put over it.

Then Dick jumped aboard the catamaran. "I suppose you both have your
revolvers?" he said to Nicholls and Simpson. "Are they fully loaded?"
The two men replied in the affirmative. "Then up with