but upon
it not only depended the practical consideration of the highest market
prices, but the honor and glory of owning the fastest schooner out of
Freekirk Head. The task of the _Charming Lass_ was delightful in its
simplicity, but fearful in its arduousness.

Jimmie Thomas came aft and stood by the wheel on the port side. It
took two men to handle her now, for the vast, dead weight in her hold
flung her forward and sidewise, despite the muscular clutch on the
wheel, and when she rolled down she came up sluggishly.

"Isn't she a dog, though, Code?" exclaimed Jimmie in admiration. "Look
at that now! Rose to it like a duck. See her now jest a-playin' with
them waves! Jest a-playin'! Oh, she's a dog, skipper--a dog, I tell
ye! Drive her! She loves it!"

"I'll drive her, Jimmie; don't you worry. Before I get through some
fellers I know'll wish they'd never heard of driving." He motioned
Pete Ellinwood aft with a free hand.

"Tell the boys," said Code, "that what sleepin' they do between here
and home will be on their feet, for I want all hands ready to jump to
orders. They can mug-up day and night, but let nobody get his boots
off."

"Ay, ay, sir!" replied Pete involuntarily. This bright-eyed,
firm-mouthed skipper was a different being from the cheerful, careless
boy he had been familiar with for years. There was the ring of
confidence and command in his voice that inspired respect. "Look out
there! Jump for it!"

The head of the _Lass_ went down with a sickening swoop and the sound
of thunder. A great, gray-and-white wall boiled and raced over her
bows. Ellinwood leaped for the weather-rigging and the other two
clutched the wheel as they stood waist-deep in the surge that roared
over the taffrail and to leeward.

"Pass the life-lines, Pete," ordered Code, and all hands passed stout
ropes from rigging to house to rail, forward and astern, so that there
might be something to leap for when the _Lass_ was boarded by a
Niagara.

Ellinwood got out two stout lines and made one fast around Code's
waist, leading it to the starboard bitt. The other fastened Jimmie to
the port bitt, so that if they were washed overboard they might be
hauled back to safety and life again.

"Looks like she was blowin' up a little!" remarked Pete later in the
day as the _Lass_ rolled down to her sheerpoles in a sudden rain
squall. "Better take in them tops'ls, hadn't ye, skipper?"

"Take in nothing!" snapped Code across the cabin table.