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? ? ? ? Her hand leaped out at once to mine.

? ? ? ? 'I'm so sorry,' she said.

? ? ? ? 'No need to be,' I gulped. 'It does me good. There's too much of the schoolboy in me. All of which is neither here nor there. What we've got to do is actually and literally to clear that raffle. If you'll come with me in the boat, we'll get to work and straighten things out.'

? ? ? ? '"When the topmen clear the raffle with their clasp-knives in their teeth,"' she quoted at me; and for the rest of the afternoon we made merry over our labor.

? ? ? ? Her task was to hold the boat in position while I worked at the tangle. And such a tangle- halyards, sheets, guys, downhauls, shrouds, stays, all washed about and back and forth and through and twined and knitted by the sea. I cut no more than was necessary, and what with passing the long ropes under and around the booms and masts, of unreeving the halyards and sheets, of coiling down in the boat and uncoiling in order to pass through another knot in the bight, I was soon wet to the skin.


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