Carroll looked round and saw the white mists stream athwart the pines on a promontory they were skirting. "That's more than I can tell. In these troughs among the hills it either blows straight up or directly down, and I dare say we'll find it different when we reach the sound. One thing's certain--there's some weight in it now." Vane nodded agreement, though an idea that troubled him crept into his mind. "I understand the steamboat skipper will run in to land some Siwash he's bringing down. It will be awkward in the dark if the wind's onshore." Carroll made no comment, and they drove on, until as they swept round the point the sloop, slanting sharply, dipped her lee rail in the froth. "We'll have to tie down a reef," he said. Vane told him to take the tiller and scrambling forward, rapped upon the cabin side, which he flung back. Mrs. Marvin lay upon the leeward locker with a blanket across her and the little girl at her feet; Miss Blake sat on the weather one with a book in her hand. "We're going to take some sail off the boat," he said. "You needn't be disturbed by the noise." "When do you expect to meet the steamer?" Miss Blake inquired. "Not for two or three hours, anyway," Vane answered, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Then, as he fancied the girl had noticed it, he closed the slide. "Down helm!" he said to Carroll, and there was a banging and thrashing of canvas as the sloop came up into the wind. They held her there, with the jib aback, while they hauled the canoe on board, which was not an easy task, and then with difficulty hove down a reef in the mainsail. It was heavy work, because there was nobody at the helm, and the craft falling off once or twice as they leaned out upon the boom with toes on her depressed lee rail, threatened to hurl them into the frothing water. Neither of them were trained sailors, but on that coast with its inlets and sounds and rivers the wanderer learns to handle sail and paddle and canoe-pole. They finished their task, and when Vane seized the helm Carroll sat down under the shelter of the coaming, out of the flying spray. "We'll probably have some trouble putting your friends on board the steamer, even if she runs in," he remarked. "What are you going to do if there's no sign of her?" "It's a question I've been shirking for the last half-hour," Vane confessed. "I'd like to point out that it would be very slow work beating back up this inlet, and if we did so there isn't a stage across the island for several days. No doubt you remember you have to see that contractor on Thursday, and there's the directors' meeting." "It's uncommonly awkward," Vane answered dubiously. Carroll laughed. "It strikes me your guests will have to stay where they are, whether they like it or not; but there's one consolation--if this wind is from the north-west, which is most likely, it will be a fast run to Victoria. And now I'll try to get some sleep."