"Two watches on a single yardarm and unable to put a reef in a
handkerchief like that!" he snorted. "What'll it be if we're off
here a month?"

"A month!" I cried.

"A month isn't anything for Cape Stiff," he said grimly. "I've been
off here seven weeks and then turned tail and run around the other
way."

"Around the world?" I gasped.

"It was the only way to get to 'Frisco," he answered. "The Horn's
the Horn, and there's no summer seas that I've ever noticed in this
neighbourhood."

My fingers were numb and I was chilled through when I took a last
look at the wretched men on the fore-yard and went below to warm up.

A little later, as I went in to table, through a cabin port I stole a
look for'ard between seas and saw the men still struggling on the
freezing yard.

The four of us were at table, and it was very comfortable, in spite
of the Elsinore's violent antics. The room was warm. The storm-
racks on the table kept each dish in its place. The steward served
and moved about with ease and apparent unconcern, although I noticed
an occasional anxious gleam in his eyes when he poised some dish at a
moment when the ship pitched and flung with unusual wildness.