miles an hour over
night, and in landlocked harbors the skippers of big steel passenger
vessels shook their heads and refused to venture out into the gale.

As well as could be judged, the _Nettie B._, _Rosan_, and _Herring
Bone_ were nearly on even terms twenty miles ahead, all with every
stitch set and flying like leaves before a wind.

"Bend on balloon jib!" snapped Schofield when he had considered the
task before him. Pete ran joyfully to execute the order, but some of
the men hesitated.

"Up with her!" roared Pete, and up she went, a great concave hollow of
white like the half of a pear. The _Lass's_ head went down, and now,
instead of attempting to go over the waves, she went through them
without argument.

Tons of divided water crashed down upon her decks and roared off over
the rails, the men at the wheel were never less than knee-deep. The
sheets strained, the timbers creaked, and the sails roared, and back
of all were the wind and the North Atlantic in hot pursuit.

By noon it could be seen that the three vessels ahead were commencing
to come back, but with terrible slowness. Code, lashed in the
weather-rigging, studied them for more than an hour through his
glasses. Then he leaped to the deck.

"Hell's bells! No wonder we can't catch 'em! Burns has got stays'l
set, and I think Tanner has, too. Couldn't see Martin. Set stays'l,
all hands!"

Under the driving of Ellinwood the staysail was set, and from then on
the _Charming Lass_ sailed on her side.

At every roll her sheerpoles were buried, and it seemed an open
question whether she would ever come up or not. It was at this time
that Tip O'Neill, a daring young buck of Freekirk Head, performed the
highly dangerous feat of walking from her main to her forerigging
along the weather run, which fact shows there was foothold on her
uppermost side for a man crazy enough to desire it.

That Ellinwood and the daring Jimmie Thomas were thoroughly in accord
with Schofield's preposterous sail-carrying was a foregone conclusion.
But others of the crew were not of the same mind. An hour more here or
there seemed a small matter to them as compared to the chance of
drowning and leaving a family unprotected and unprovided for.

Schofield sensed this feeling immediately it had manifested itself,
and he called his lieutenants to him. He wished to provide against
interference.

"House the halyards aloft!" he commanded, and at this even those
two daring souls stoo