amer, and called out:

"I want more beef at the wheel. Bigpig, take it; and you, Turkey, stand
by with him. Get away from there, Sinful. Give her the upper
maintopsail, the rest of you. Poop-deck, you stand by the
signal-halyards. Ask him if he's got a tow-line ready."

Protesting angrily at the slight put upon him, Sinful Peck relinquished
the wheel, and joined the rest on the main-deck, where they had
hurried. Two men went aloft to loose the topsail, and the rest cleared
away gear, while Poop-deck examined the signal-book.

"K. S. G. says, 'Have a tow-line ready.' That ought to do, Seldom," he
called.

"Run it up," ordered the newly installed captain, "and watch his
answer." Up went the signal, and as the men on the main-deck were
manning the topsail-halyards, Poop-deck made out the answer: "V. K. C."

"That means 'All right,' Seldom," he said, after inspecting the book.

"Good enough; but we'll get our line ready, too. Get down and help 'em
mast-head the yard first, then take 'em forrard and coil the tow-line
abaft the windlass. Get all the heavin'-lines ready, too."

Poop-deck obeyed; and while the main-topsail-yard slowly arose to place
under the efforts of the rest, Seldom himself ran up the answering
pennant, and then the repetition of the steamer's last message: "All
right." This was the final signal displayed between the two craft. Both
signal-flags were lowered, and for a half-hour Seldom waited, until the
others had lifted a nine-inch hawser from the forepeak and coiled it
down. Then came his next orders in a continuous roar:

"Three hands aft to the spanker-sheet! Stand by to slack off and haul
in! Man the braces for wearing ship, the rest o' you! Hard up the
wheel! Check in port main and starboard cro'-jack braces! Shiver the
topsail! Slack off that spanker!"

Before he had finished the men had reached their posts. The orders were
obeyed. The ship paid off, staggered a little in the trough under the
right-angle pressure of the gale, swung still farther, and steadied
down to a long, rolling motion, dead before the wind, heading for the
steamer. Yards were squared in, the spanker hauled aft, staysail
trimmed to port, and all hands waited while the ship charged down the
two miles of intervening sea.

"Handles like a yacht," muttered Seldom, as, with brow wrinkled and
keen eye flashing above his hooked nose, he conned the steering from
his place near the mizzenmast.

Three men separated themselves