But the passage from the wharf to the Dashaway occupied but a few moments: and John soon placed his passenger upon the half-deck; and after making fast the dory to the moorings, he joined him. The skipper opened the cuddy, which was large enough to contain two berths and other conveniences, and invited him to enter, and thus protect himself from the cold wind and the dashing spray: but Mr. Bankhead was too much of a sailor to shun his own peculiar element; and, enveloping himself in a heavy pea-jacket he found in the cuddy, he offered his services to assist in getting the boat under way. “You are the skipper, Jack, and I will obey your orders,” said he. “What shall I do?” “You may knot these reef-points in the foresail, if you please, sir, and I will put a couple of reefs in the mainsail. It will help us get off the quicker.” “But you don’t intend to carry a reefed foresail and a reefed mainsail, do you?” asked the officer. “No, sir: we will try it under jib, and mainsail with two reefs. I think she will carry it; but, if she won’t, we shall be all ready to put her under a reefed foresail.” “Just so; I understand you; and your calculation is a very good one.” In a few moments these preparations were completed, and the mainsail was hoisted. The wind blew even fresher than John had supposed; but he still believed that the Dashaway would carry her jib and double-reefed mainsail. “Now, sir, if you will stand by the helm, I will let go the moorings and hoist the jib,” said the skipper, when everything was in readiness for a start. “Ay, ay, my lad. The jib-sheet leads aft, don’t it?” “Yes, sir.” John then cast off the moorings, and, seizing the halyard, ran up the jib in the twinkling of an eye. Mr. Bankhead then made fast the sheets, and the Dashaway, catching a heavy flaw, heeled over till her washboard was nearly submerged,--an antic which caused the lieutenant at the helm to cast loose the mainsheet, under the impression that she was going over. “She can stand it, sir,” shouted John, as he hauled in the sheet again, and took his place at the helm. “She makes cantering work of it, anyhow,” added Mr. Bankhead, whose nerves were somewhat shaken by the heeling-over of the boat. “She’s good for a bigger blow than this. Now, if you will take a seat on the weather-side, or lie down in the cuddy, we shall soon get our bearings. There, sir, she jumps over the waves like a feather.”