and if you are right it must be ninety-eight or more, accordin' to the time it took me to get my certificate as missionary. What year is it?"
"Nineteen hundred, so 'elp me," said the skipper; "and I'll have up the Nautical Almanac to show you."
But Ruddle took their word for it, and sniffed a little, and then remarked—
"I do think my beard wants trimmin'. And am I mad now?"
"No, no," said the faithful Chadwick, "you aren't mad, and in a little while it will all come back to you, and you will come back to us, and we'll all be happy, even Blithers."
"Who's Blithers?" asked Ruddle sadly. Yet he did not wait for an answer. Though the Wave was now hove to under her main-topsail, with the foreyards checked in, and was fairly comfortable, the gale instead of moderating let another reef out, so to speak, and was a regular sizzler.
"I should like to see that main-topsail goose-winged, sir," said Ruddle suddenly, "for if we are off the Cape, as you all seem to think, this is by no means the worst of it, and it will be a real old-fashioned scorcher."
