It became necessary to shorten sail. Soon the bottom of
the boat was awash and Esteban lay in a pool of brine. Even when
the girls helped to dip it out they could not lower its level. The
wind freshened steadily; all hands worked desperately, wet to the
skin.
In time there came a spiteful drizzle which completely hid the sun
and left no indication of the course except the direction whence
drove the rain.
No one spoke now. Even Esteban lay silent, shivering miserably
upon his sodden bed. In obedience to O'Reilly's command Jacket
flung overboard all but a half-dozen of the remaining cocoanuts.
Rosa finally straightened her aching back and smiled at her
husband.
"Are we going down?" she asked.
"Oh no! This is merely a squall," he told her, with an assumption
of confidence he was far from feeling.
Johnnie tried to reason himself into a more hopeful frame of mind.
He assured himself that he and his companions had survived too
many perils to become the prey of an idle breeze like this; he
argued that no fate could be so cruel as to cheat them when they
were so close to safety. But this manful effort brought him little
comfort in the face of the chilling rain and with the whitecaps
curling higher.
Deliverance came suddenly, and from the least-expected quarter.
Out of the mist to starboard there materialized a shape, a
schooner driving ahead of the wind.
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