"Catch on to that port sheet there!" shouted Jack. "Port, I say, port! Make fast! Not too flat! Give her all she'll use!"
The Merle was now moving slowly before the wind.
"Break out the jibs," ordered Jack, "both jibs! That's good. Make fast!"
The wind had so freshened that the yacht began to move in earnest. At this juncture voices, faint but frantic, were heard hailing from astern.
"Merle ahoy! Ahoy-oy-oy! Show—light! A-hoy-oy-oy—'board the Merle!"
"Hear the steward?" called Jack to Jerry, who was at work with the head-sheet cleats.
"Hear him!" laughed Jerry. "His music's a merry send-off."
"Ahoy-oy-oy!" came the voice again, fainter and full of a dismayed distress that made them both break out afresh into derisive laughter. "Ahoy! Anchor! An-chor—Anch"—
The despairing wail died away on the freshening wind.