it with my foot, stumbled at a heavy plunge of the yacht, heard
something snap below, and saw the last of it disappear. The yacht
fell off the wind, and drifted astern. I shouted, and had the sense
to hoist the reefed foresail at once. Davies had her in hand in no
time, and was steering south-west. Going aft I found him cool and
characteristic.

'"Doesn't matter." he said; "anchor's buoyed. (Ever since leaving the
Elbe we had had a buoy-line on our anchor against the emergency of
having to slip our cable and run. For the same reason the end of the
chain was not made permanently fast below.)

'We'll come back to-morrow and get it. Can't now. Should have had to
slip it anyhow; wind and sea too strong. We'll try for Bensersiel.
Can't trust to a warp and kedge out here."

'An exciting run it was, across country, so to speak, over an
unboomed watershed; but we had bearings from our morning's walk.
Shoal water all the way and a hollow sea breaking everywhere. We soon
made out the Bensersiel booms, but even under mizzen and foresail
only we travelled too fast, and had to heave to outside them, for the
channel looked too shallow still. We lowered half the centre-board
and kept her just holding her own to windward, through a most trying
period. In the end had to run for it sooner than we meant, as we were
sagging to leeward in spite of all, and the light was failing. Bore
up at _5.15_, and raced up the channel with the booms on our left
scarcely visible in the surf and rising water. Davies stood forward,
signalling--port, starboard, or steady--with his arms, while I
wrestled with the helm, flung from side to side and flogged by
wave-tops. Suddenly found a sort of dyke on our right just covering