the helm, Jim and me will lay out on the
yard."

There was truly occasion for anxiety. During the last hour the gale had
increased, and the masts were almost torn out of the little vessel, as
she drove before it. To turn her side to the wind would have insured
her being thrown on her beam-ends. Heavy seas were constantly breaking
over the stern, and falling with such weight on the deck that Tommy
expected to see them stove in and the vessel swamped. In other
circumstances the boy would have been first to suggest reefing the
sails, and first to set the example, but he felt that his life depended
that night (under God) on his watchfulness and care.

"Reef tops'l!" cried Job, looking fiercely at Bunks, "no, we shan't;
there's one reef in't, an' that's enough." Bunks shuddered, for he saw
by the glare of the murderer's eyes that the evil deed, coupled with his
deep potations, had driven him mad.

"P'raps it is," said Bunks, in a submissive voice; "but it may be as
well to close reef, 'cause the weather don't seem like to git better."

Job turned with a wild laugh to Tommy:

"Here, boy, go aloft and reef tops'l; d'ye hear?"

Tommy hesitated.

"If you don't," said Job, hissing out the words in the extremity of his
passion, and stopping abruptly, as if unable to give utterance to his
feelings.

"Well, what if I don't?" asked the boy sternly.

"Why, then--ha! ha! ha!--why, I'll do it myself."

With another fiendish laugh Job sprang into the rigging, and was soon
out upon the topsail-yard busy with the reef points.

"Why, he's _shakin' out_ the reef," cried Jim in alarm. "I've half a
mind to haul on the starboard brace, and try to shake the monster into
the sea!"

Job soon shook out the reef, and, descending swiftly by one of the
backstays, seized the topsail-halyards.

"Come, lay hold," he cried savagely.

But no one would obey, so, uttering a curse upon his comrades, he passed
the rope round a stanchion, and with his right hand partially hoisted
the sail, while with his left he hauled in the slack of the rope.

The vessel, already staggering under much too great a press of canvas,
now rushed through the water with terrific speed; burying her bows in
foam at one moment, and hurling off clouds of spray at the next as she
held on her wild course. Job stood on the bowsprit, drenched with
spray, holding with one hand to the forestay, and waving the other high
above his head, cheering and yelling furiously