"That's bad!" commented the former. "I think, Bill, you'd better rig up a sea-anchor for us to ride to. What do you say, Lolie?" The woman flushed with pleasure at Jack asking her opinion, and her eyes, shining with suppressed excitement, aroused in her by this struggle with the elements, beamed fearlessly into the heart of the storm. "It's going to blow very hard, I'm sure of it," she answered; "but you know best, Jack." Thereupon they wasted no time in acting on the rover's idea. Three oars were lashed together triangle-wise with a tarpaulin spread between them. This was weighted by the small boat-kedge. Then, with their strongest line attached, this contrivance was lifted over the bows and the line paid out as the boat drifted down to leeward. This had the effect of holding the boat's head up to windward, and caused her to ride easier. There was nothing more to be done but sit still and hope that the gallant craft would succeed in weathering out the storm. Leaving the post that she had held so well, Loyola seated herself beside Jack in the bottom of the boat, where they were protected in some degree from the howling wind. Jack made her don a long oilskin coat to keep out the wind and rain, as, slightly clad as they all were, the wetting caused a feeling of cold. Now that the strain and excitement of the first strenuous fight were over the woman felt somewhat limp and disheartened; but the presence of her lover by her side, blind and helpless though he was, proved a great comfort to her. Shyly she sneaked her hand into his. He closed his fingers upon it reassuringly and whispered in her ear, "I'm very proud of you, Lolie, steering through that squall." Such was the noise of the wind that, though the castaways sat shoulder to shoulder with their backs to the gale, Jack, farthest aft, could only hear Loyola speaking next to him by putting his ear close to her mouth. On the other side of Loyola sat Jim, the baler in his hand; whilst next to him Broncho and Bill Benson exchanged remarks, Tari being in his favourite place up in the bows. "She rides well," muttered the bosun's mate, "an' if this kick-up don't stir up the mud too much, we'll see another dawnin' in this old low-degree turnip after all." "You allows as how these perverse elements ain't goin' to get our scalps then," drawled the cowpuncher. "The deal comes a bit florid to me. The amount of _agua_ we-alls contrives to gather at one time I regyards as liable to have baleful effects." "An' my idees were about the same gauge. It's the gal who pulls us through the shindy. She's a bit o' dossy goods, wi' enuff nerve an' savvy to make an' ordinary josser pipe low an' subdued." "You're shore right a whole corralful. I feels plumb useless an' no account when that 'ere squall rounds up on us, an' I near cuts loose a howl; but when I sees how she's playin' the game so ca'm an' easy, I cinches up my paltry feelin's an' whirls into the play with renewed sperit."