All afternoon the Dazzler pitched and rolled at her anchorage, and as evening drew on the wind deceitfully eased down. This, and the example set by French Pete, encouraged the rest of the oyster-boats to attempt to ride out the night; but they looked carefully to their moorings and put out spare anchors.  
French Pete ordered the two boys into the skiff, and, at the imminent² risk of swamping, they carried out a second anchor, at nearly right angles to the first one, and dropped it over. French Pete then ran out a great quantity of chain and rope, so that the Dazzler dropped back a hundred feet or more, where she rode more easily.
 
It was a wild stretch of water which Joe looked upon from the shelter of the cockpit. The oyster-beds were out in the open bay, utterly³ unprotected, and the wind, sweeping⁴ the water for a clean twelve miles, kicked up so tremendous a sea that at every moment it seemed as though the wallowing sloops⁵ would roll their masts overside. Just before twilight⁷ a patch of sail sprang up to windward, and grew and grew until it resolved itself into the huge mainsail of the Reindeer⁸.
 
"Ze beeg fool!" French Pete cried, running out of the cabin to see. "Sometime—ah, sometime, I tell you—he crack on like dat, an' he go, pouf! just like dat, pouf!—an' no more Nelson, no more Reindeer, no more nothing."
 
Joe looked inquiringly at 'Frisco Kid.
 
"That 's right," he answered. "Nelson ought to have at least one reef in. Two 'd be better. But there he goes, every inch spread, as though some fiend was after 'im. He drives too hard; he 's too reckless, when there ain't the smallest need for it. I 've sailed with him, and I know his ways."
 
Like some huge bird of the air, the Reindeer lifted and soared down on them on the foaming⁹ crest¹¹ of a wave.
 
"Don't mind," 'Frisco Kid warned. "He 's only tryin' to see how close he can come to us without hittin' us."
 
Joe nodded, and stared with wide eyes at the thrilling sight. The Reindeer leaped up in the air, pointing her nose to the sky till they could see her whole churning forefoot; then she plunged¹² downward till her for'ard deck was flush with the foam¹⁰, and with a dizzying rush she drove past them, her main-boom missing the Dazzler's rigging by scarcely a foot.
 
Nelson, at the wheel, waved his hand to them as he hurtled past, and laughed joyously¹³ in French Pete's face, who was angered by the dangerous trick.
 
When to leeward¹⁴, the splendid craft rounded to the wind, rolling once till her brown bottom showed to the centerboard and they thought she was over, then righting and dashing ahead again like a thing possessed¹⁵. She passed abreast¹⁶ of them on the starboard side. They saw the jib run down with a rush and an anchor go overboard as she shot into the wind; and as she fell off and back and off and back with a spilling mainsail, they saw a second anchor go overboard, wide apart from the first. Then the mainsail came down on the run, and was furled and fastened by the time she had tightened¹⁷ to her double hawsers¹⁸.
 
"Ah, ah! Never was there such a man!"
 
The Frenchman's eyes were glistening¹⁹ with admiration²⁰ for such perfect seamanship, and 'Frisco Kid's were likewise moist.
 
"Just like a yacht," he said as he went back into the cabin. "Just like a yacht, only better."
 
As night came on the wind began to rise again, and by eleven o'clock had reached the stage which 'Frisco Kid described as "howlin'." There was little sleep on the Dazzler. He alone closed his eyes. French Pete was up and down every few minutes. Twice, when he went on deck, he paid out more chain and rope. Joe lay in his blankets and listened, the while vainly courting sleep. He was not frightened, but he was untrained in the art of sleeping in the midst of such turmoil²¹ and uproar²² and violent commotion²³. Nor had he imagined a boat could play as wild antics as did the Dazzler and still survive. Often she wallowed over on her beam till he thought she would surely capsize. At other times she leaped and plunged in the air and fell upon the seas with thunderous crashes as though her bottom were shattered to fragments. Again, she would fetch up taut²⁴ on her hawsers so suddenly and so fiercely as to reel from the shock and to groan²⁵ and protest through every timber.
 
'Frisco Kid awoke once, and smiled at him, saying:
 
"This is what they call hangin' on. But just you wait till daylight comes, and watch us clawin' off. If some of the sloops don't go ashore²⁶, I 'm not me, that 's all."
 
And thereat he rolled over on his side and was off to sleep. Joe envied him. About three in the morning he heard French Pete crawl up for'ard and rummage

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