host_. Her low hull lifted and rolled to windward on a sea; her canvas
loomed darkly in the night; her lashed wheel creaked as the rudder
kicked; then sight and sound of her faded away, and we were alone on the
dark sea.

CHAPTER XXVII

Day broke, grey and chill. The boat was close-hauled on a fresh breeze
and the compass indicated that we were just making the course which would
bring us to Japan. Though stoutly mittened, my fingers were cold, and
they pained from the grip on the steering-oar. My feet were stinging
from the bite of the frost, and I hoped fervently that the sun would
shine.

Before me, in the bottom of the boat, lay Maud. She, at least, was warm,
for under her and over her were thick blankets. The top one I had drawn
over her face to shelter it from the night, so I could see nothing but
the vague shape of her, and her light-brown hair, escaped from the
covering and jewelled with moisture from the air.

Long I looked at her, dwelling upon that one visible bit of her as only a
man would who deemed it the most precious thing in the world. So
insistent was my gaze that at last she stirred under the blankets, the
top fold was thrown back and she smiled out on me, her eyes yet heavy
with sleep.

"Good-morning, Mr. Van Weyden," she said. "Have you sighted land yet?"

"No," I answered, "but we are approaching it at a rate of six miles an
hour."

She made a _moue_ of disappointment.

"But that is equivalent to one hundred and forty-four miles in
twenty-four hours," I added reassuringly.

Her face brightened. "And how far have we to go?"

"Siberia lies off there," I said, pointing to the west. "But to the
south-west, some six hundred miles, is Japan. If this wind should hold,
we'll make it in five days."

"And if it storms? The boat could not live?"

She had a way of looking one in the eyes and demanding the truth, and
thus she looked at me as she asked the question.

"It would have to storm very hard," I temporized.

"And if it storms very hard?"

I nodded my head. "But we may be picked up any moment by a
sealing-schooner. They are plentifully distributed over this part of the
ocean."

"Why, you are chilled through!" she cried. "Look! You are shivering.
Don't deny it; you are. And here I have been lying warm as toast."

"I don't see that it would help matters if you, too, sat up and were
chilled," I laughed.

"It will, though, when I learn to steer, which I certain