has made. He should have been more careful.



CHAPTER XXX



An abominable night! A wonderful night! Sleep? I suppose I did
sleep, in catnaps, but I swear I heard every bell struck until three-
thirty. Then came a change, an easement. No longer was it a
stubborn, loggy fight against pressures. The Elsinore moved. I
could feel her slip, and slide, and send, and soar. Whereas before
she had been flung continually down to port, she now rolled as far to
one side as to the other.

I knew what had taken place. Instead of remaining hove-to on the
pampero, Captain West had turned tail and was running before it.
This, I understood, meant a really serious storm, for the north-east
was the last direction in which Captain West desired to go. But at
any rate the movement, though wilder, was easier, and I slept. I was
awakened at five by the thunder of seas that fell aboard, rushed down
the main deck, and crashed against the cabin wall. Through my open
door I could see water swashing up and down the hall, while half a
foot of water creamed and curdled from under my bunk across the floor
each time the ship rolled to starboard.

The steward brought me my coffee, and, wedged by boxes and pillows,
like an equilibrist, I sat up and drank it. Luckily I managed to
finish it in time, for a succession of terrific rolls emptied one of