e outer Hebrides, carrying to the bottom
most of the hands as well as the commander of the partially insured
ship.

This misfortune had kept Tunis Latham out of a command of his own
until he was thirty; for Cape Cod boys that come of masters'
families and are born navigators usually tread their own decks years
before the age at which Tunis was pacing that of the _Seamew_ on
this summer day.

"How does she handle now, Horry?" asked the skipper, wheeling
suddenly to face the old steersman.

"Thar's still that tug to sta'bo'd, Captain Tunis," growled the old
man.

"But you keep her full on her course."

"Spite o' that? In course. But I can feel her tuggin' like a big
bluefish trying to bolt with hook and sinker. Never did feel that
same tug to sta'bo'd but once before on any craft. I told you that."

Tunis Latham nodded. The old man's keen eyes tried to read the
skipper's face. He could scan the signs in sea and sky at a glance,
but he confessed that the captain of the _Seamew_ revealed no more
of his inner thoughts than had the mahogany countenance of the older
Captain Latham with whom Horry Newbegin had so long sailed.

"Well," the steersman said finally, "I've told ye all I can tell ye.
That other schooner that had a tug to sta'bo'd like this, the
_Marlin B._, got a bad name from the Georges to Monomoy P'int. You
know that."

"Cat's foot!" ejaculated Tunis cheerfully. "The _Marlin B._ was sold
for a pleasure yacht and taken half around the world. A Chilean
guano millionaire bought her the year after the Sutro Brothers took
her off the Banks."

"Ye-as. That's what Sutro Brothers says," and the old man wagged his
head doubtfully. "But there's just as much difference in ships, as
there is in men. Ain't never been two men just per_zact_-ly alike.
No two craft ever sailed or steered same as same, Captain Tunis. I
steered the _Martin B._ out o' Salem on her second trip, without
knowing what she'd been through, you can believe, on her first."

"Well, well!" Tunis broke in sharply. "Just keep your mind on what
you are doing now, Horry. You're supposed to be steering the
_Seamew_ into Big Wreck Cove. Don't undertake to shave a piece off
the Lighthouse Point reef."

The steersman did not answer. From long experience with these
Lathams, Horace Newbegin knew just how much interference or advice
they would stand.

"And, by gum, that ain't much!" he growled to himself.

He took the beautifully sailing schooner in t