"Soho-ho!" he cried. "Shipped another passenger, Harry, have you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why, you've got Captain Funk aboard."

"Not I," returned Harry, "only if we get into any foolish scrape, they
won't let us come out for a sail again, and as this is the only jaunt
left us, we may as well keep ourselves quiet."

"There's something in that," said young Jack,

So saying, he set about reefing the sail with all possible despatch.

Now it was barely accomplished when a violent gust of wind drove the
little craft along at a furious rate.

It was only just in time.

A moment more and the sail would have been shredded, or, what was still
worse, the boat would have been capsized for a certainty.

Harry Girdwood lowered the oars and pulled sharply along before the
fury of the gale, while young Jack baled out a little water that had
been shipped in the first heavy lurch, before the youthful mariners had
been fully prepared for such violent treatment, and steered at the same
time.

In this way they contrived to elude the violence of the gale for the