ems the proposition of the Kilkenny cats, a case of mutual destruction
on the part of the two mates.

"Another thing," I said quickly. "Where do you get your food?"

Bert Rhine laughed one of his silent laughs; Charles Davis assumed an
expression of mysteriousness and superiority; and Shorty, leaping into
view from the corner of the house, danced a jig of triumph.

I drew out my watch.

"Remember," I said, "you've ten minutes in which to make a start."

They turned and went for'ard, and, before the ten minutes were up, all
hands were aloft and stowing canvas. All this time the wind, out of the
north-west, was breezing up. The old familiar harp-chords of a rising
gale were strumming along the rigging, and the men, I verily believe from
lack of practice, were particularly slow at their work.

"It would be better if the upper-and-lower top-sails are set so that we
can heave to," Margaret suggested. "They will steady her and make it
more comfortable for us."

I seized the idea and improved upon it.

"Better set the upper and lower topsails so that we can handle the ship,"
I called to the gangster, who was ordering the men about, quite like a
mate, from the top of the 'midship-house.

He considered the idea, and then gave the proper orders, although it was
the Maltese Cockney, with Nancy and Sundry Buyers under him, who carried
the orders out.

I ordered Tom Spink to the long-idle wheel, and gave him the course,
which was due east by the steering compass. This put the wind on our
port quarter, so that the _Elsinore_ began to move through the water
before a fair breeze. And due east, less than a thousand miles away, lay
the coast of South America and the port of Valparaiso.

Strange to say, none of our mutineers objected to this, and after dark,
as we tore along before a full-sized gale, I sent my own men up on top
the chart-house to take the gaskets off the spanker. This was the only
sail we could set and trim and in every way control. It is true the
mizzen-braces were still rigged aft to the poop, according to Horn
practice. But, while we could thus trim the mizzen-yards, the sails
themselves, in setting or furling, were in the hands of the for'ard
crowd.

Margaret, beside me in the darkness at the break of the poop, put her
hand in mine with a warm pressure, as both our tiny watches swayed up the
spanker and as both of us held our breaths in an effort to feel the added
draw in the _Elsinore's_ speed.