The Ebb-Tide


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so deadly a depressant to the merely cowardly.  
For some time the voyage went otherwise well. They weathered Fakarava  
with one board; and the wind holding well to the southward and  
blowing fresh, they passed between Ranaka and Ratiu, and ran some days  
north-east by east-half-east under the lee of Takume and Honden, neither  
of which they made. In about 14 degrees South and between 134 and 135  
degrees West, it fell a dead calm with rather a heavy sea. The captain  
refused to take in sail, the helm was lashed, no watch was set, and the  
Farallone rolled and banged for three days, according to observation, in  
almost the same place. The fourth morning, a little before day, a breeze  
sprang up and rapidly freshened. The captain had drunk hard the night  
before; he was far from sober when he was roused; and when he came on  
deck for the first time at half-past eight, it was plain he had already  
drunk deep again at breakfast. Herrick avoided his eye; and resigned the  
deck with indignation to a man more than half-seas over.  
By the loud commands of the captain and the singing out of fellows at  
the ropes, he could judge from the house that sail was being crowded on  
the ship; relinquished his half-eaten breakfast; and came on deck again,  
to find the main and the jib topsails set, and both watches and the cook  
turned out to hand the staysail. The Farallone lay already far over;  
the sky was obscured with misty scud; and from the windward an ominous  
squall came flying up, broadening and blackening as it rose.  
Fear thrilled in Herrick's vitals. He saw death hard by; and if not  
death, sure ruin. For if the Farallone lived through the coming squall,  
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Page
74 75 76 77 78

Quick Jump
1 50 101 151 201