I said: "What is the right wind?"

Captain Goyles looked puzzled.

"In the course of this week," I went on, "we have had wind from the
north, from the south, from the east, from the west--with variations. If
you can think of any other point of the compass from which it can blow,
tell me, and I will wait for it. If not, and if that anchor has not
grown into the bottom of the ocean, we will have it up to-day and see
what happens."

He grasped the fact that I was determined.

"Very well, sir," he said, "you're master and I'm man. I've only got one
child as is still dependent on me, thank God, and no doubt your executors
will feel it their duty to do the right thing by the old woman."

His solemnity impressed me.

"Mr. Goyles," I said, "be honest with me. Is there any hope, in any
weather, of getting away from this damned hole?"

Captain Goyles's kindly geniality returned to him.

"You see, sir," he said, "this is a very peculiar coast. We'd be all
right if we were once out, but getting away from it in a cockle-shell
like that--well, to be frank, sir, it wants doing."

I left Captain Goyles with the assurance that he would watch the weather
as a mother would her sleeping babe; it was his own simile, and it struck