She hesitated a moment, fearful at leaving me.
“There is no danger,� I said. “There were but four men on the ship, one is dead and overboard, another locked up in the forepeak beneath my feet, and two are as helpless as logs.�
“I will go,� said the girl resolutely, “although it is frightfully dark.�
“The least call will bring me to your side,� said I. “Take the lantern with you. I need it not.�
I watched her walk rapidly along the deck, lantern in hand. When she reached the wheel I told her to cast off its lashings, put it amidships, and then with an axe, which I had found lying where they had left it after they had cut the wreckage of the masts away, I severed the cable. Thereafter I called aft to my lady to put the helm hard astarboard. The bow of The Rose of Devon slowly swung around, the sail filled and presently I had the satisfaction of seeing her slip through the entrance in the lagoon, past the reef and into the open sea.
I belayed the jib sheet, ran aft and took the helm. We were free. My mistress refused to go below, refused to leave my side in fact, so until daybreak we remained on deck, I steering, she seated close by. And so we sped on through the sweet summer night.
CHAPTER XX
SHOWS HOW WE SAILED TO SAFETY AGAIN
I DO not suppose that a man and a woman were ever confronted with a greater task than that which we faced that morning. The problem met me in so many ways that I was fairly puzzled at it. The two men lying bound and gagged on the deck had, of course, recovered consciousness. The man below in the forepeak had given some noisy signs of his presence. These three had to be dealt with in some way. The ship itself was wrecked, aloft that is, and I had as yet no means of telling whether she were tight below, although, as I deemed she sat about as usual in the water, I concluded that if she had sprung a leak they had succeeded in stopping it.
The dawn disclosed a white-faced man and woman staring at each other near the wheel. Breakfast was a problem in itself, too. On the one hand, I did not like to send my lady below without at least having made some sort of inspection myself, nor did I like to leave her alone on deck, on the other.
“Of what are you thinking?� she asked presently, seeing my brows knitted with the stress of my mental effort.