THE UNSPEAKABLE GENTLEMAN
was out of control, and the wind was blowing it on shore. Had he thought of the plan while he was watching Mr. Sims in the light of the lantern? I half suspected that he had not, but I never knew.
"Open the door, Brutus," said my father, and suddenly his voice was raised to a shout that rose above the wind and the sails.
"Keep clear of that wheel! If a single man touches it—do you hear me?—Stand clear!" And he fired again, and the Sea Tern still lurched in the trough of the sea.
I ran to the door beside him. Ten paces away the light of the binnacle was burning, and by it I saw two men lying huddled on the deck, and the ship's wheel whirling backwards and forwards as the waves hit the rudder.
"Get the wheel!" someone was shouting frantically. "Get the wheel! She's being blown on the bar. Get the wheel!"
"Stand clear, you dogs," called my father. "We're all going on the bar together."
"Brutus," he added, "go forward and open the forecastle, and tell my men to clear the decks. If any of these fools notice you, kill them, but they won't, Brutus, they won't. Their minds are too much set on a watery grave."
[222]
