A Man to His Mate

anently of what was left him of the spring of manhood. It was as if his juices had been sucked from his veins and arteries and

of a giant's drum. The sun was never seen. Through daylight hours the schooner wrestled with the elements in a ghastly, purplish twilight, lifting under double reefs over g

g the seas, gaining a little headway, losing leeway, fighting, fighting, while ever

wind a lash-brought exultation and a sense of mastery and confidence such as he had never before held suggestion of. To guide the ship, constantly to baffle the sea and wind, the turbu

Even as Simms seemed to be declining, so Rainey felt tha

against the rail to watch the storm, silent as far as the pair were concerned. And presently Car

hat of an automaton at the wheel, could not have failed to see. If the girl slipped, Carlsen's hand would catch and steady

rom sheer love of feeling the control. But one day, at a word from t

el a while, Rainey

his eye he could see that the girl was pleading to hand

properly. The Karluk, with her narrow beam, was lithe and active as a great cat in those waves. It t

empt at disguising the fact that the schooner's afterward was a divided company and, save for the fact of his blindness temp

, without seeming consciousness, and he felt that Lund would never deliberately insult a woman-any sort of woman. He was beginning to fee

as the girl got tired. Suddenly shouts sounded from forward, a medley of them, indistinct against the quartering wind. Sandy, the roustabout, came

n he saw Rainey. "And killers

fins cutting the water in streaks of foam, all abreast, their high dorsals waving, wolves of the sea, hunting for the gray bowhead whale, to fo

ear while the killers help 'emselves. Ha'f the bowheads you git have got chunks bitten out of their tongues. I

lithe figure was leaning to one side as she, too, gazed ahead, though she still paid attention to her steering and held the schooner well up, her face bright with excitement, wet with flyin

ows to witness this gladiatorial combat between sea monsters, staged fittingly in a sea that was run

tave in a sudden shrill of apprehension. Other

h, look out!

r, directly in the course of the Karluk, while toward it, intent only on their blood lust, leaped the killers, thrusting at its head as the scho

elled Rainey. "

order, for he could see the girl striving with the spokes, Carlsen lending his strength to hers. The sh

changing plane of the rudder. But the waves were running tremendously high, and the wind blowing with great f

gale suddenly spilled out of them, the topsails lashed and shivered, and the fore

as he grasped at the coil of the main halyards. Down came the tons of water, booming on th

in the stream, clutching at the halyards. The sea struck the opposite rail with