erboard.

So Denman paced the deck, occasionally peeping down the engine-room
hatch at the dynamo, and again trying the drift by the old-fashioned
chip-and-reel log at the stern. When tired, he would sit down in the
deck chair, which he had wedged between the after torpedo and the
taffrail, then resume his pacing.

As darkness closed down, he sought Florrie's door, and asked her if she
would eat something. She was too ill, she said; and, knowing that no
words could comfort her, he left her, and in the galley ate his own
supper--tinned meat, bread, and coffee.

Again the deck, the intermittent pacing, and resting in the chair. The
gale became a hurricane in the occasional squalls; and at these times
the seas were beaten to a level of creamy froth luminous with a
phosphorescent glow, while the boat's rolling motion would give way to a
stiff inclination to starboard of fully ten degrees. Then the squalls
would pass, the seas rise the higher for their momentary suppression,
and the boat resume her wallowing, rolling both rails under, and
practically under water, except for the high forecastle deck, the
funnels, and the companions.

Denman did not worry. With the wind northwest, the storm center was
surely to the north and east-ward of him; and he knew that, according to
the laws of storms in the North Atlantic, it would move away from him
and out to sea.

And so it continued until about midnight, when he heard the rasping of
the companion hood, then saw Florrie's face peering out. He sprang to
the companion.

"Billie! Oh, Billie!" she said, plaintively. "Let me come up here with
you?"

"But you'll feel better lying down, dear," he said. "Better go back."

"It's so close and hot down there. Please let me come up."

"Why, yes, Florrie, if you like; but wait until I fit you out. Come down
a moment."

They descended, and he found rubber boots, a sou'wester, and a long
oilskin coat, which she donned in her room. Then he brought up another
chair, lashed it--with more neckties--to his own, and seated her in it.

"Don't be frightened," he said, as a sea climbed on board and washed
aft, nearly flooding their rubber boots and eliciting a little scream
from the girl. "We're safe, and the wind will blow out in a few hours."

He seated himself beside her. As they faced to leeward, the long brims
of the sou'westers sheltered their faces from the blast of rain and
spume, permitting conversation; but they did not converse fo