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'We must economize, said Davies, for all the world as though we were castaways on a raft. 'It's a wretched thing to have to land somewhere to buy oil, was a favourite observation of his. Before getting to sleep I was made to recognize a new factor in the conditions of navigation, now that the tideless Baltic was left behind us. 'What's kedging-off? I asked, when we were tucked up again.
The light was bad, and a misplaced boom tricked us; kedging-off failed, and at 8 p.m. we were left on a perfect Ararat of sand, and only a yard or two from that accursed boom, which is perched on the very summit, as a lure to the unwary. It is going to blow hard too, though that is no great matter, as we are sheltered by banks on the sou'-west and nor'-west sides, the likely quarters.
'Now haul, he shouted. I hauled, beginning to see what kedging-off meant. 'Steady on! Don't sweat yourself, said Davies, jumping aboard again. 'It's coming, I spluttered, triumphantly. 'The warp is, the yacht isn't; you're dragging the anchor home. Never mind, she'll lie well here. Let's have lunch. The yacht was motionless, and the water round her visibly lower.
I crawled out from the folds, and saw him standing by the mast in a reverie. 'It's not much use, he said, 'on a falling tide, but we'll try kedging-off. Pay that warp out while I run out the kedge. Like lightning he had cast off the dinghy's painter, tumbled the kedge-anchor and himself into the dinghy, pulled out fifty yards into the deeper water, and heaved out the anchor.
He's a man of leisure; aren't you, Davies? 'What? said Davies. I translated my cruel question. 'Yes, said Davies, with simple pathos. 'If I have to leave him I shan't be missed as an able seaman, at least. He'll just potter on down the islands, running aground and kedging-off. and arrive about Christmas. 'Or take the first fair gale to Dover, laughed the commander. 'Or that.
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