“Take the wheel a few minutes while I go below, will you?”
Ned did as he was requested, and Roy left the pilot-house, returning ten minutes later, and saying to Ned in a low tone which could not be overheard by Vance, who was curled up on one of the lockers:
“I know now why you felt so chilly a few minutes ago.”
“Have you been aft?”
“Yes, and it’s terrible to watch the waves.”
“I suppose they look a good deal worse in the darkness than they really are; but it would give a fellow the horrors to stay there very long.”
“It doesn’t seem as if the little craft could live through the night.”
“Nonsense,” Ned replied, speaking very much more confidently than he felt. “This isn’t really a gale, and she must be a good sea-boat, otherwise your father wouldn’t have thought of coming from Savannah in her.”
“It would be very much different if she was under steam.”
“I’m not so certain of that. So long as we keep steerage-way on, I can’t see why she shouldn’t do just as well under sail.”