“I dare you.”
“I will, Mister Wull. Honest, I will! I’ll say ten an you don’t look out.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“In a minute, Mister Wull. I’ll say it just so soon as I get up the sail. I will, Mister Wull, honest t’ God!”
The coast had vanished.
“Look,” cried Jehoshaphat, “we’re doomed men!”
The squall, then first observed, sent the sea curling over the ice. Jehoshaphat’s rodney shipped the water it raised. Snow came in a blinding cloud.
“Say ten, you fool!” screamed old John Wull.
“Ten!”
John Wull came to the edge of the pan. ’Twas hard for the old man to breast the gust. He put his hands to his mouth that he might be heard in the wind.