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London, Jack

"The Sea-Wolf"



Chapter Twenty-Eight



? ? ? ? THERE IS NO NEED OF GOING into an extended recital of our suffering in the small boat during the many days we were driven and drifted, here and there, willy-nilly, across the ocean. The high wind blew from the northwest for twenty-four hours, when it fell calm, and in the night sprang up from the southwest. This was dead in our teeth, but I took in the sea-anchor and set sail, hauling a course on the wind that took us in a south-southeasterly direction. It was an even choice between this and the west-northwesterly course that the wind permitted; but the warm airs of the south fanned my desire for a warmer sea and swayed my decision.


? ? ? ? In three hours- it was midnight, I well remember, and as dark as I had ever seen it on the sea- the wind, still blowing out of the southwest, rose furiously, and once again I was compelled to set the sea-anchor.


? ? ? ? Day broke and found me wan-eyed and the ocean lashed white, the boat pitching, almost on end, to its drag.


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