CHAPTER XV
Dead Reckoning
SOME ten minutes later a hail from the deck disturbed the lovers.
"Below there! I say—Law!—wind a-coming!"
"Right O! Half a minute!"
But that stipulated delay was several times multiplied before Alan showed up on deck, to find Barcus bending a laborious back to the capstan. Already a breath of coolness stole through the warm languor of the night: blocks creaked, canvas shivered: there was a sibilant murmur in the water outside.
"Lend a hand, can't you?" Barcus complained. "I didn't interrupt you just to get an audience. The sooner we get this anchor in"
"But I don't want the anchor," Alan protested. "It isn't my anchor. I say, cut the cable—or let it run."
Barcus stepped back from the capstan and kicked open the pawl, with the result that the windlass began merrily to unwind.
"My compliments! I never thought of that.
75
