rovisions had been stowed aft the mast.

[Illustration: STEPHEN BEATS OFF THE GREAT WAR-CANOE SINGLE-HANDED.]

One of the barrels served as a table, the iron plate that had been taken
from the floor of the ship's galley had been placed forward of the mast on
a layer of sand three inches thick, and a forecastle hatch had been placed
above it to serve as an exit for the smoke. A store of wood, the result of
their ship-building operations, was piled in the bow. Stephen did not
trouble to cook, but boiled some water over some chips of wood, made
himself a cup of coffee, or rather the half of a small gourd of coffee,
ate a melon and a biscuit, and presently went up on deck again. At three
o'clock a light breeze sprung up, and this, an hour later, strengthened to
a heavy blow. Stephen sailed on until midnight, then reefed the mainsail
and fastened the boom amidships, lowered the foresail and hauled the jib
to weather, and having thus laid the cutter head to wind lay down on the
deck and slept soundly until daybreak. The next day he passed two or three
islands, but all at a considerable distance. Beyond these no land was
visible, and he hoped that he was fairly beyond the Archipelago with its
hostile natives.

Day after day passed without incident. Stephen always lay to at night for
a few hours, and calculated that the rate at which he sailed during the
remaining eighteen was, allowing for calms, some four knots an hour. On
the sixth day the appearance of the sky changed, and Stephen prepared for
bad weather by fully reefing his mainsail. The clouds banked up rapidly
and the wind rose. It was southerly, and the boat tore rapidly through the
water. Two hours later Stephen let the foresail run down, and under the
reduced sail the boat went more lightly and easily over the rising sea. By
evening he had stowed the mainsail altogether, and slackening the jib
sheet held on his course. By midnight it was blowing a gale. He raised the
gaff four or five feet, put lashings round the sail to prevent its blowing
out, and then hauling on the weather sheet let her lay to, taking now his
place at the tiller, so as to be able to bring her head up did she pay off
the wind.

It was an anxious night, but the little craft was lightly ballasted and
buoyant, and rose to the seas without taking any great quantity of water
over the bows. For two days the storm continued. Stephen never left the
tiller during that time save to run below at intervals