“Until we got this tow I didn’t expect ever to see port again,” Tom Halstead admitted, quietly. “Do you know, the worst thing folks will have against row-boats in the future will be the fact that row-boats are too small to carry a wireless installation!”
“You feel wholly safe, now, do you, captain?” demanded Powell Seaton. “It rather seems to me that the gale has been getting heavier.”
“It has,” Halstead admitted. “If we were adrift, now, we probably couldn’t keep right-side up for ten minutes. But give the ‘Restless’ real headway, and she’ll weather any gale that a liner or a warship will.”
“If the towing hawser should part!” shuddered Mr. Seaton.
“We’d hope to get another line across, and made fast, before we ‘turned turtle,’” replied Skipper Tom. 228
No one could venture from below on the bridge deck without being quickly drenched. For that reason the wheel-reliefs were short. Hank, by staying right by his galley fire, was able to keep heat at which anyone coming down from the bridge deck could dry himself.
By daylight the gale and sea were lighter. For one thing, the Havana liner had carried her tow so far north that they were out of the worst of it. Half an hour after daylight the wireless operator aboard the larger craft telegraphed Joe:
“We’ve taken you in four miles off the town of Mocalee. You can get gasoline there. Do you want to cast off our line now?”
“Yes,” flashed back Joe, after consulting Captain Halstead. “And our greatest, heartiest thanks for your fine work for us.”
There was further interchange of courtesies, then the line was cast off as soon as Joe and Hank had started the twin motors going on the little that was left of the gasoline. There was no way, or need, to settle the liner’s towing charges now. These could be collected later, for the “Restless” was a boat registered by the United States authorities. She could be found and libeled anywhere if her young owners failed to settle.