Besides, it wouldn't be tidy, and an
untidy ship is worse than an untidy house, because you can't get away
from it. But I won't be long."
True to his promise, White, bringing with him a heavy oilskin coat and
an armful of blankets, speedily rejoined his comrade, who was by this
time shivering in the chill night air.
"Put this on," said the young skipper, tendering Cabot the oilskin,
"and then I am going to ask you to stand first watch. I will roll up
in these blankets and sleep here on deck, so that you can get me up at
a moment's notice. You want to wake me at midnight, anyhow, when I
will take the morning watch."
"Very well," agreed Cabot resignedly. "I suppose you know what is best
to be done, but it seems to me that we are arranging for a very
lonesome cruise on regular Box and Cox lines."
As White had no knowledge of Box and Cox he did not reply to this
grumble, but, rolling up in his blankets until he resembled a huge
cocoon, almost instantly dropped asleep.
During the next four hours Cabot, shivering with cold and aching with
weariness, but never once allowing his tired eyes to close, remained at
his post. Through the black night, and over the still darker waters,
he guided the flying schooner according to the advice of the unstable
compass card that formed the only spot of light within his whole range
of vision. At the same time, knowing how little of skill he possessed
in this new line of business, and not yet having a sailor's confidence
in the craft that bore him, he was filled with such a fear of the
night, the wind, the leaping waters, and a thousand imaginary dangers
that his hardest struggle was against an ever-present impulse to arouse
his sleeping comrade.
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