"For the Lord's sake, ain't you going to snub this ship!" she cried in a voice hoarse with fury.
Jed Tyler thrust a ghastly dewy face out of the windlass room.
"I can't do it, Hat!" he gasped.
"You can't! Don't tell me you can't! Everything's been done that's been tried. You drop that hook or I'll know the reason why!"
"The friction band's broke square in two."
"Oh, damn it all, if I must say so—there!" said Hat bitterly, for she was not captain in name only. "If there's any such thing as break it's break at a time like this. Let go that port anchor."
"Both wildcats will turn idle the way things are here."
"You do as I say! The weight of the chain may check her in some."
Tyler dropped his other hook.
"How much chain have we got on that starboard anchor? Do you know?"