CHAPTER III.

TROUBLED MEN ON THE TROUBLED SEA.

Two men on board the craft were absorbed in thought--the old man, and

the skipper of the hooker, who must not be mistaken for the chief of the

band. The captain was occupied by the sea, the old man by the sky. The

former did not lift his eyes from the waters; the latter kept watch on

the firmament. The skipper's anxiety was the state of the sea; the old

man seemed to suspect the heavens. He scanned the stars through every

break in the clouds.

It was the time when day still lingers, but some few stars begin faintly

to pierce the twilight. The horizon was singular. The mist upon it

varied. Haze predominated on land, clouds at sea.

The skipper, noting the rising billows, hauled all taut before he got

outside Portland Bay. He would not delay so doing until he should pass

the headland. He examined the rigging closely, and satisfied himself

that the lower shrouds were well set up, and supported firmly the

futtock-shrouds--precautions of a man who means to carry on with a press

of sail, at all risks.

The hooker was not trimmed, being two feet by the head. This was her

weak point.

118

The Man Who Laughs