“Don’t anybody ever again ask me to go sailing on an April day!” snapped the Virginian.
Darkness came down without the moon they desired.
“I wish we were back on the island,” said Bart.
“Can’t we run back there now?” asked Harry.
Frank looked away over the water and then shook his head.
“It’s more than even we’d run straight out to the open sea,” he said.
Frank took full command, and his sharp orders were obeyed unhesitatingly, showing they all had confidence in him.
The Jolly Sport lurched and staggered. She fell off amazingly. Frank gave orders that another reef be taken, and the boys sprang to obey, Browning making a show of haste.
Frank put two men on the sheet when the reef had been made, a laborious task, for their fingers were numb with the cold. The boat shook ominously.
But under the double reef she rode better.