," she
said. She seemed to have mastered herself suddenly and singularly.

Mayo's eyes expressed frank astonishment; he was telling himself again
that he did not understand women.

"I don't blame you for thinking that I am a fool, but I am not a
coward," she repeated.

"I'm sorry," stammered the young man. "I forgot myself."

"There is danger, isn't there?"

"I'm afraid the mast has pounded a bad hole in her. I must run forward.
I must see if something can't be done."

"I am going with you." She followed him when he started away.

"You must stay aft. You can't get forward along that deck. Look at the
waves breaking over her!"

"I am going with you," she insisted. "Perhaps there is something that
can be done. Perhaps I can help."

The girl was stubborn, and he knew there was no time for argument.

Three times on their way forward he was obliged to hold her in the hook
of his arm while he fought with the torrent that a wave launched upon
the deck.

There was no doubt regarding the desperate plight of the schooner. She
was noticeably down by the head, and black water was swashing forward
of the break of the main-deck. The door of the galley was open, and the
one-eyed cook was revealed sitting within beneath a swinging lantern. He
held a cat under his arm.

"Bear a hand here, cook!" called Mayo.

But the man did not get off his stool.

"Bear a hand, I say! We've got to rig tackle and get this long-boat
over."

The schooner's spare boat was in chocks between the foremast and the
main. Mayo noted that it was heaped full of spare cable and held the
usual odds and ends of a clutter-box. He climbed in hastily and gave a
hand to the girl to assist her over the rail.

"It will keep you out of the swash," he advised her. "Sit there in the
stern while I toss out this truck."

But she did not sit down. She began to throw out such articles as her
strength could manage.

Again Mayo hailed the cook, cursing him heartily.

"Oh, it ain't any use," declared the man, with resignation. "We're
goners."

"We aren't gone till we go, you infernal turtle! Come here and pitch
in."

"I hain't got no heart left for anything. I never would have believed
it. The Old Man going off and saving a lot of nigger sailors instead of
me--after all the vittles I've fixed up for him. If that's the kind of
gratitude there is in the world, I'm glad I'm going out of it. Me and
the cat will go together. The cat's a friend, anyway."

Ma