All was over so suddenly that the pistol was still smoking in my hand as I leapt from the forecastle and rushed aft.
“Is all well?” I shouted.
“All well,” said Ludar, quietly. “She grazed our poop and no more.”
“And the maiden?” said I.
“All well,” cried she, cheerily from the helm, “and fair in the wind.”
“Stand at your posts still,” cried Ludar.
So for another half-hour yet we stood at our posts, just as we had stood before the crisis came; and not a word said any one.
Then in the stormy east came a faint flush of dawn, and we knew that this perilous night was over.
“Seaman,” said Ludar, “relieve the maiden at the helm, and bid her come hither.”
She came, radiant and triumphant.