the sufferer, who had really struggled
with the oar till his exertions and excitement had nearly disabled him.

"Pull away for half a minute more," replied Shuffles, as he ran up the
main-sail, which beat and thrashed fearfully in the gale.

Having secured the halyards, the new skipper sprang to the helm, and
seized the main sheet. Placing the lady on the weather side, he seated
himself on the rail, with the sheet in his right hand, and the tiller
in his left.

"Now let her go it!" he shouted to the young man. "Jump up to windward,
and keep your weather eye open!"

The weary oarsman was glad to be relieved from his exhausting task, and
promptly obeyed the order. Shuffles had put two reefs in the sail; but
without the most skilful handling, the boat could not carry even this
short canvas in such a fierce tempest. It was not such a sea as rages
in a storm upon the ocean, but it was altogether too rough for any
ordinary boat. It was not a long, bounding, rolling billow, but a
short, angry wave, that tried the timbers of the Swiss boat. As soon as
the rower ceased his occupation, the head of the craft fell off, the
sail filled, and she careened down to the gunwale.

"We shall certainly tip over!" gasped the lady, clinging to the rail.

"Don't be afraid, miss. This boat behaves very handsomely, and is stiff
enough to weather a gale," added Shuffles, confidently, as the little
vessel leaped upon one of the snappy, snarling billows, and then
plunged down into the trough of the sea.

"I never was terrified in a boat before," said she, shaking with alarm.

"It is a heavy storm, and not just the weather for a lady to be out in.
Don't be frightened, miss. The boat is doing very well under her double
reefs, and she will weather it, if you only believe in her."

There came another tremendous gust, which seemed to strike the boat
like a blow from an immense sledgehammer; and she bent down under it
till her rail was buried in the foaming waters. Shuffles "touched her
up" a little, and let out the sheet till the sail shook in the blast.
The boat righted, and for a moment had a partial respite from the
savage pounding of the tempest. The young man, who clung to the weather
rail with a tenacity which indicated that he had not yet recovered his
self-possession, glanced ahead, and then at the steamer, whose course
now diverged from that of the sail-boat, and the two craft were
increasing their distance from each other.

"We wish