there on
our lee, for the bones of our ship and us.

And then the _Elsinore's_ bow paid off. The angle of the beat of the
gale changed, and soon, with dreadful speed, we were dashing straight
before it and straight toward the rocks we could not see. But all doubt
was over. The success of the manoeuvre was assured. Mr. Mellaire,
informed by messenger along the bridge from Mr. Pike, slacked off the
head-yards. Mr. Pike, his eye on the helmsman, his hand signalling the
order, had the wheel put over to port to check the _Elsinore's_ rush into
the wind as she came up on the starboard tack. All was activity. Main-
and mizzen-yards were braced up, and the _Elsinore_, snugged down and
hove to, had a lee of thousands of miles of Southern Ocean.

And all this had been accomplished in the stamping ground of storm, at
the end of the world, by a handful of wretched weaklings, under the drive
of two strong mates, with behind them the placid will of the Samurai.

It had taken thirty minutes to wear ship, and I had learned how the best
of shipmasters can lose their ships without reproach. Suppose the
_Elsinore_ had persisted in her refusal to payoff? Suppose anything had
carried away? And right here enters Mr. Pike. It is his task ever to
see that every rope and block and all the myriad other things in the vast
and complicated gear of the _Elsinore_ are in strength not to carry away.
Always have the masters of our race required henchmen like Mr. Pike, and
it seems the race has well supplied those henchmen.

Ere I went below I heard Captain West tell Mr. Pike that while both
watches were on deck it would be just as well to put a reef in the
foresail before they furled it. The mainsail and the crojack being off,
I could see the men black on the fore-yard. For half-an-hour I lingered,
watching them. They seemed to make no progress with the reef. Mr.
Mellaire was with them, having direct supervision of the job, while Mr.
Pike, on the poop, growled and grumbled and spat endless blasphemies into
the flying air.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Two watches on a single yardarm and unable to put a reef in a
handkerchief like that!" he snorted. "What'll it be if we're off here a
month?"

"A month!" I cried.

"A month isn't anything for Cape Stiff," he said grimly. "I've been off
here seven weeks and then turned tail and run around the other way."

"Around the world?" I gasped.

"It was the only way to get to 'Frisco