the longboat. The man went along, hugging his
cat.

"What will happen to us?" asked the girl when Mayo climbed in.

"I don't know," he panted. "I reckon the devil is pitching coppers for
us just now--and the penny is just hopping off his thumb nail!"

His tone was reckless. The excitement of the past few hours was having
its effect on him at last. He was no longer normal. Something that was
almost delirium affected him.

"Aren't you frightened?" she asked.

"Yes," he admitted. "But I'm going to keep hustling just the same."

Bradish and the cook were squatting amidships in the yawl.

"You lie down under those thwarts, the two of you, and hang on," cried
Mayo. Then he quickly passed a rope about the girl's waist and made the
ends of the line fast to the cleats. "I don't know what will happen when
the old tub dives," he told her. "Those five thousand tons of coal will
take her with a rush when she starts. All I can say is, hold tight and
pray hard!"

"Thank you," she said, quietly.

"By gad, she's got grit!" muttered the young man, scrambling forward
over the prostrate forms of the other passengers. "I wonder if all the
women in the world are this way?" He was remembering the bravery of
Polly Candage.

There was a huge coil of rope in the bow, spare cable stored there. Mayo
made fast the free end, working as rapidly as he was able, and bundled
about half the coil into a compact mass--a knob at the end of some ten
fathoms of line. And to this knob he lashed oars and the mast he found
stowed in the boat. He knew that if they did get free from the schooner
only an efficient sea-anchor or drag would keep the yawl right side up.
When this task was finished he crouched low in the bow and looked at the
girl.

"We're about ready to start on our journey," he called to her. "If I
don't see you again, good-by!"

"I shall not say good-by to you, Captain Mayo--not yet!"

XXIV ~ DOWN A GALLOPING SEA

I saddled me an Arab steed and saddled her another,
And off we rode together just like sister and like brother,
Singing, "Blow ye winds in the morning!
Blow ye winds, hi ho! Brush away the morning dew,
Blow ye winds, hi ho!"
--Blew Ye Winds.

With anxiety that was almost despairing Mayo looked up at the shrouds,
stays, and halyards, which were set like nets to right and left and
overhead.

A big roller tumbled inboard and filled the space forward of th