Probably it was the growing discomfort of my attitude which produced this backsliding. My night’s rest and the “ascent from the bath” had, in fact, done little to prepare me for contact with sharp edges and hard surfaces. But Davies had suddenly come to himself, and with an “I say, are you comfortable? Have something to sit on?” jerked the helm a little to windward, felt it like a pulse for a moment, with a rapid look to windward, and dived below, whence he returned with a couple of cushions, which he threw to me. I felt perversely resentful of these luxuries, and asked:
“Can’t I be of any use?”
“Oh, don’t you bother,” he answered. “I expect you’re tired. Aren’t we having a splendid sail? That must be Ekken on the port bow,” peering under the sail, “where the trees run in. I say, do you mind looking at the chart?” He tossed it over to me. I spread it out painfully, for it curled up like a watch-spring at the least slackening of pressure. I was not familiar with charts, and this sudden trust reposed in me, after a good deal of neglect, made me nervous.
“You see Flensburg, don’t you?” he said. “That’s where we are,” dabbing with a long reach at an indefinite space on the crowded sheet. “Now which side of that buoy off the point do we pass?”
I had scarcely taken in which was land and which was water, much less the significance of the buoy, when he resumed:
“Never mind; I’m pretty sure it’s all deep water about here. I expect that marks the fairway for steamers.
In a minute or two we were passing the buoy in question, on the wrong side I am pretty certain, for weeds and sand came suddenly into view below us with uncomfortable distinctness. But all Davies said was:
“There’s never any sea here, and the plate’s not down,” a dark utterance which I pondered doubtfully. “The best of these Schleswig waters,” he went on, “is that a boat of this size can go almost anywhere. There’s no navigation required. Why——” At this moment a faint scraping was felt, rather than heard, beneath us.
“Aren’t we aground?” I asked with great calmness.
“Oh, she’ll blow over,” he replied, wincing a little.