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Further pursuit was useless; so, taking in the stay-sail, he put the boat about, and again turned his attention to the sufferer. The boat's progress, assisted by the current, was very rapid, and she soon reached the island. The experienced eye of her manager discerned through the darkness the narrow opening of the little stream.
"The glass has fallen a full inch within the last half-hour" he muttered, as he rejoined the mate. Then in a louder tone of voice he added, "Call all hands, Mr Bowles, if you please, and shorten sail at once. Stow everything except the lower fore and main topsails and the fore-topmast stay-sail; I think we are going to have a change of weather."
Here was a heap of gear stay-sail, and jib-halyards, and other ropes, some of the ends swarming overboard. I hauled in one of these ends, but found I could not clear the raffle; but looking round, I perceived a couple of coils of line spare stun'-sail tacks or halyards I took them to be lying close against the foot of the bowsprit.
Still the wind had freshened, and when he stood on the verge of the cliff sustained by the breeze, which pressed him back from the precipice, rendering his head more steady, and his footing sure, the Elizabeth was casting, under close-reefed top-sails, and two reefs in her courses, with a heavy stay-sail or two, to ease her helm.
The precious tobacco stitched up in a piece of canvas was there, and the housewife with the needles and threads. A hole had been dug in the sand as a sort of cache for them, and the stay-sail put over them to protect them from the dew. The sun was now looking over the sealine, and the tall cocoa-nut trees were singing and whispering together under the strengthening breeze.
I then led a party forward, and got the fore and main stay-sails on the ship. To these were added the mizen stay-sail, the only other piece of canvass we could show, until the top-masts were fidded.
Bob stood knee-deep in the water staring hard at me. For the first few moments he looked furious; then he seemed to grow sulky, and then in a low surly voice he said: "I say, Sep, it isn't true, is it?" "Isn't what true?" "About the about what old stay-sail said?" "About you being disagreeable?" "Yes. It isn't true, is it?" I nodded. "I don't believe it," he said impetuously.
The box of fish-hooks had been jammed into the centre of a cooked breadfruit, both having been picked up by the fingers of the wind and hurled against the same tree; and the stay-sail of the Shenandoah was out on the reef, with a piece of coral carefully placed on it as if to keep it down. As for the lug-sail belonging to the dinghy, it was never seen again.
The stay-sail will be quite as much as we shall want, I expect." The topsails were stowed, and the men came down on deck again, evidently glad to find themselves there once more, and huddling together on the forecastle like frightened sheep.
That was the case with the "Pilgrim." A few minutes after the top-sail had been torn in pieces, the foretop-mast stay-sail was in its turn torn off. Dick Sand must then give up the idea of setting even a storm-jib a small sail of strong linen, which would make the ship easier to govern.
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