shouts of the sailors, the thrashing of the sails--enough, in fact,
to wake the dead. But S- never came on deck. When I was relieved
by the chief mate an hour afterwards, he sent for me. I went into
his stateroom; he was lying on his couch wrapped up in a rug, with
a pillow under his head.

"What was the matter with you up there just now?" he asked.

"Wind flew round on the lee quarter, sir," I said.

"Couldn't you see the shift coming?"

"Yes, sir, I thought it wasn't very far off."

"Why didn't you have your courses hauled up at once, then?" he
asked in a tone that ought to have made my blood run cold.

But this was my chance, and I did not let it slip.

"Well, sir," I said in an apologetic tone, "she was going eleven
knots very nicely, and I thought she would do for another half-hour
or so."

He gazed at me darkly out of his head, lying very still on the
white pillow, for a time.

"Ah, yes, another half-hour. That's the way ships get dismasted."

And that was all I got in the way of a wigging. I waited a little
while and then went out, shutting carefully the door of the state-