At other times she leaped
and plunged in the air and fell upon the seas with thunderous crashes
as though her bottom were shattered to fragments. Again, she would fetch
up taut on her hawsers so suddenly and so fiercely as to reel from the
shock and to groan and protest through every timber.
'Frisco Kid awoke once, and smiled at him, saying:
"This is what they call hangin' on. But just you wait till daylight comes,
and watch us clawin' off. If some of the sloops don't go ashore, I 'm not
me, that 's all."
And thereat he rolled over on his side and was off to sleep. Joe envied
him. About three in the morning he heard French Pete crawl up for'ard and
rummage around in the eyes of the boat. Joe looked on curiously, and by
the dim light of the wildly swinging sea-lamp saw him drag out two spare
coils of line. These he took up on deck, and Joe knew he was bending them
on to the hawsers to make them still longer.
At half-past four French Pete had the fire going, and at five he called
the boys for coffee. This over, they crept into the cockpit to gaze on the
terrible scene. The dawn was breaking bleak and gray over a wild waste of
tumbling water. They could faintly see the beach-line of Asparagus Island,
but they could distinctly hear the thunder of the surf upon it; and as the
day grew stronger they made out that they had dragged fully half a mile
during the night.
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