till she floats,' said Davies; and I can see him now quietly smoking
and splicing a chafed warp while he explained that her double skin of
teak fitted her to stand anything in reason. She certainly had a
terrific test that night, for the bottom was hard, unyielding sand,
on which she rose and fell with convulsive vehemence. The last
half-hour was for me one of almost intolerable tension. I spent it on
deck unable to bear the suspense below. Sheets of driven sea flew
bodily over the hull, and a score of times I thought she must succumb
as she shivered to the blows of her keel on the sand. But those stout
skins knit by honest labour stood the trial. One final thud and she
wrenched herself bodily free, found her anchor, and rode clear.

On the whole I think we made few mistakes. Davies had a supreme
aptitude for the work. Every hour, sometimes every minute, brought
its problem, and his resource never failed. The stiffer it was the
cooler he became. He had, too, that intuition which is independent of
acquired skill, and is at the root of all genius; which, to take
cases analogous to his own, is the last quality of the perfect guide
or scout. I believe he could _smell_ sand where he could not see or
touch it.

As for me, the sea has never been my element, and never will be;
nevertheless, I hardened to the life, grew salt, tough, and tolerably
alert. As a soldier learns more in a week of war than in years of
parades and pipeclay, so, cut off from all distractions, moving from
bivouac to precarious bivouac, and depending, to some extent, for my
life on my muscles and wits, I rapidly learnt my work and gained a
certain dexterity. I knew my ropes in the dark, could beat
economically to windward through squalls, take bearings, and estimate
the interaction of wind and tide.