ntial and
piping hot breakfast put new lift into me.

Throughout the day, and as slowly and steadily as ever, the wind
increased. It impressed one with its sullen determination to blow, and
blow harder, and keep on blowing. And still the _Ghost_ foamed along,
racing off the miles till I was certain she was making at least eleven
knots. It was too good to lose, but by nightfall I was exhausted.
Though in splendid physical trim, a thirty-six-hour trick at the wheel
was the limit of my endurance. Besides, Maud begged me to heave to, and
I knew, if the wind and sea increased at the same rate during the night,
that it would soon be impossible to heave to. So, as twilight deepened,
gladly and at the same time reluctantly, I brought the _Ghost_ up on the
wind.

But I had not reckoned upon the colossal task the reefing of three sails
meant for one man. While running away from the wind I had not
appreciated its force, but when we ceased to run I learned to my sorrow,
and well-nigh to my despair, how fiercely it was really blowing. The
wind balked my every effort, ripping the canvas out of my hands and in an
instant undoing what I had gained by ten minutes of severest struggle.
At eight o'clock I had succeeded only in putting the second reef into the
foresail. At eleven o'clock I was no farther along. Blood dripped from
every finger-end, while the nails were broken to the quick. From pain
and sheer exhaustion I wept in the darkness, secretly, so that Maud
should not know.

Then, in desperation, I abandoned the attempt to reef the mainsail and
resolved to try the experiment of heaving to under the close-reefed
foresail. Three hours more were required to gasket the mainsail and jib,
and at two in the morning, nearly dead, the life almost buffeted and
worked out of me, I had barely sufficient consciousness to know the
experiment was a success. The close-reefed foresail worked. The _Ghost_
clung on close to the wind and betrayed no inclination to fall off
broadside to the trough.

I was famished, but Maud tried vainly to get me to eat. I dozed with my
mouth full of food. I would fall asleep in the act of carrying food to
my mouth and waken in torment to find the act yet uncompleted. So
sleepily helpless was I that she was compelled to hold me in my chair to
prevent my being flung to the floor by the violent pitching of the
schooner.

Of the passage from the galley to the cabin I knew nothing. It was a
sleep-wa