"Just won't," growled the doctor; and he turned his back and uttered a deep snore. Jack stared in horror, and then dropped on all fours to crawl to the foot of the cabin stairs, and fetch help to drag the drowning man on deck, being fully imbued with the idea that Doctor Instow had taken some drug in his despair, so that he might be unconscious when the yacht went down. In passing he saw that the captain's and the mate's berths were both empty, and, how he knew not, he crawled up the cabin stairs, looked on deck, and saw that his father was standing by the weather bulwark, and the captain close by. There was the man at the wheel, and a couple more forward in shiny yellow tarpaulins; and as he gazed at them wildly, there was a thud and a beautiful curve over of a wave which deluged the deck and splashed the two men, but they did not stir. He saw no more then, for the yacht careened over from the pressure on the three great sails, and it seemed to the lad that the next moment they would be lying flat upon the water, so he clung to the hatchway fittings for dear life. But the next moment the _Silver Star_ rose from the wave in front, and literally rushed on, quivering from stem to stern like a live creature, the waves parting and hissing to form an ever-widening path of foam astern. Jack caught the full fresh breeze in his teeth as he struggled on deck, and breathlessly staggered to the side, looking as if he were going to leap overboard; then clinging to the rail, he crept hand-over-hand to where his father now stood with the captain. "That you, Jack?" cried Sir John. "Good-morning. Well done! Come, this is brave." "Splendid!" cried Captain Bradleigh. "Why you have soon come round." Jack woke fully to the fact now that it was a false alarm, and strove hard to get rid of the scared look with which he had come on deck for help to drag Doctor Instow up. But still he was not quite assured, for he started suddenly as, _plosh_! there came another rush of water over the bows. "What's that?" he cried. "Sea having a game with the yacht," said the captain merrily. "Splashing her nose. Look how she rises and glides over that wave. Regular racer, isn't she?" "Yes, going so fast," panted Jack breathlessly. "But--but is there no danger--of her sinking?" "Just about as much as there would be of a well-corked-up bottle, my lad. The more you pushed her under, the more she'd bob up again. Oh no, she won't sink." "I'm glad you came up," said Sir John. "This breeze is glorious, and I never saw the sea more beautiful; look how the waves glisten where the moon falls upon them on one side, and how they catch the soft pearly light from the east on the other. It is a lovely effect." "Yes, father, very beautiful," said the boy sadly. "Are we far from land, Captain Bradleigh?" "Yes, and getting farther every minute. Don't want any steam with this breeze. If it holds, we shall regularly race across the bay."