assed. I begged her to go below,
before worse happened, assuring her that Kennedy, who was in charge,
would know exactly what to do; but the little lady was grit to the
backbone, and positively refused to leave the deck. On the contrary,
she ordered Kennedy to counter-brace the yards with the head yards
aback, and then heave the ship to on the port tack, after which
everybody but ourselves and the look-outs was to go below, and while she
was giving these orders she deftly passed a few more turns of the
halyard about herself, so that she could not possibly be blown away
unless the mizenmast was blown out of the ship. Also she begged the
loan of my black silk neck scarf, which she tied over her head and under
her chin, so that her yachting cap might not be blown overboard, as mine
had been.

By this time the air all about us was in a state of continuous
agitation, the wind sometimes swooping down upon us in savage gusts, and
anon easing up for a moment until it was scarcely more than a zephyr;
but these lulls momentarily became of briefer duration, until in the
space of about ten minutes it was blowing hard but very unsteadily, the
heavy gusts following each other with ever-increasing rapidity. And now
we felt the full benefit of our earlier preparations; for with the
counter-bracing of the yards--a task accomplished in less than a
minute--everything that was possible had been done; and all that
remained was to ride out the gale as best we could.

We were now afforded an opportunity--the first that had ever occurred,
as Kennedy yelled for my information--to see what a really magnificent
sea boat we had under our feet, for under the scourging of that terrible
wind the sea rose with appalling rapidity, notwithstanding that the top
of every sea, as it rose, was torn off and swept to leeward in blinding
and drenching clouds of spindrift. And although our engine had been
stopped, the ship lay to in the most perfect manner, heading well up
into the wind and taking the seas, as they came at her, as buoyantly as
a gull, shipping very little water except what came aboard in the form
of spindrift or scud water, with an occasional spattering over the
weather cathead.

But this was only the beginning of the hurricane--merely its awakening,
so to speak. With the passage of the minutes the wind steadily
increased in strength until the wailing and shrieking of it through the
spars and rigging aloft resembled the tones of a migh