"And it's slack off the sheets for Japan!" I cried gayly."A fair wind and a flowing sheet, you know, or however it goes."Lashing the wheel, I ran forward, eased the fore and main sheets, took in on the boom-tackles, and trimmed everything for the quartering breeze which was ours.It was a fresh breeze, very fresh, but I resolved to run as long as I dared.Unfortunately, when running free, it is impossible to lash the wheel, so I faced an all-night watch.Maud insisted on relieving me, but proved that she had not the strength to steer in a heavy sea, even if she could have gained the wisdom on such short notice.She appeared quite heart-broken over the discovery, but recovered her spirits by coiling down tackles and halyards and all stray ropes.Then there were meals to be cooked in the galley, beds to make, Wolf Larsen to be attended upon, and she finished the day with a grand house-cleaning attack upon the cabin and steerage.
All night I steered, without relief, the wind slowly and steadily increasing and the sea rising.At five in the morning Maud brought me hot coffee and biscuits she had baked, and at seven a substantial and piping hot breakfast put new life into me.
Throughout the day, and as slowly and steadily as ever, the wind increased.
It impressed one with its sullen determination to blow, and blow harder, and keep on blowing.And still the Ghost foamed along, racing off the miles till I was certain she was making at least eleven knots.It was too good to lose, but by nightfall I was exhausted.Though in splendid physical trim, a thirty-six-hour trick at the wheel was the limit of my endurance.Besides, Maud begged me to heave to, and I knew, if the wind and sea increased at the same rate during the night, that it would soon be impossible to heave to.So, as twilight deepened, gladly and at the same time reluctantly, I brought the Ghost up on the wind.
But I had not reckoned upon the colossal task the reefing of three sails meant for one man.While running away from the wind I had not appreciated its force, but when we ceased to run I learned to my sorrow, and well-nigh to my despair, how fiercely it was really blowing.The wind balked my every effort, ripping the canvas out of my hands and in an instant undoing what I had gained by ten minutes of severest struggle.At eight o'clock I had succeeded only in putting the second reef into the foresail.At eleven o'clock I was no farther along.Blood dripped from every finger end, while the nails were broken to the quick.From pain and sheer exhaustion I wept in the darkness, secretly, so that Maud should not know.
Then, in desperation, I abandoned the attempt to reef the mainsail and resolved to try the experiment of heaving to under the close-reefed foresail.
Three hours more were required to gasket the mainsail and jib, and at two in the morning, nearly dead, the life almost buffeted and worked out of me, I had barely sufficient consciousness to know the experiment was a success.The close-reefed foresail worked.The Ghost clung on close to the wind and betrayed no inclination to fall off broadside to the trough.
I was famished, but Maud tried vainly to get me to eat.dozed with my mouth full of food.I would fall asleep in the act of carrying food to my mouth and waken in torment to find the act yet uncompleted.So sleepily helpless was I that she was compelled to hold me in my chair to prevent my being flung to the floor by the violent pitching of the schooner.
Of the passage from the galley to the cabin I knew nothing.It was a sleep-walker Maud guided and supported.In fact, I was aware of nothing till I awoke, how long after I could not imagine, in my bunk with my boots off.It was dark.I was stiff and lame, and cried out with pain when the bed-clothes touched my poor finger-ends.
Morning had evidently not come, so I closed my eyes and went to sleep again.I did not know it, but I had slept the clock around and it was night again.
