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whistled down the speaking tube to the engine room and when answer came back, he said, “Half speed.”
    “It’s about time,” cried the harried engineer.
    Spar looked back to the wing of the bridge. Peg Mannering still stood there, leaning against the rail, drenched with water and whipped by the wind. Spar grinned again and looked back to the wild sea.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Hurricane Hill
     
    C APTAIN SPAR had not realized how late it had become. But dawn was nothing more than a graying of the sky and water, and the twilight of day only gave the storm greater strength.
    The Venture rolled and bucked and shuddered in the sea, plunging ahead a foot for every fathom up and down. Peg Mannering had wearied and Spar had sent her into his cabin.
    Soon the black of former acquaintance came on the bridge, overbearing and disdainful, holding on to the dodger .
    “Is the ship all right?” said Chacktar.
    Spar stared at the scornful face. “Yes, go back and tell them so.”
    “Remember, you saw Tom Perry kill those men. Otherwise, convict, back you go.”
    Spar stepped very close to the black. “The title is Captain, if you please.”
    Chacktar laughed. “Ho, ho, the convict feels his metal .”
    Spar tried to hold his temper in with but small success. Suddenly, at the sight of the disdainful black face, his control snapped. “Metal, hell! You’re going to feel something else!”
    He started for Chacktar, but the black dodged nimbly and scurried down the ladder. Spar had no time to calm himself before young Tom Perry, weaving back and forth up the lunging ladder, approached the bridge.
    Tom Perry, very drunk but wholly in possession of his strength, grabbed hold of Spar’s slicker. “See here, fellow. See here. You can’t do that!”
    “Can’t do what?”
    “Can’t stay out here. We’ll all drown. You’ve got to make land, hear me? I order you to make land right away. Any old land. Hear me?”
    “I’m proceeding to New York, under your father’s orders.”
    “No, no, to hell with my father. He don’t care what happens to me. No, he don’t care about nothing. He thinks in dollar marks, he does. Listen here, you captain, you make land right away.”
    “Sorry,” said Spar, firmly.
    “What’s this? What’s this? You disobey my orders? Say, I’ll have you fired for this. Fired right away.”
    Spar pried the fingers off his slicker and pushed Tom back against the rail. “Get as drunk as you want, but let me take care of this ship.”
    “Oh, so it’s insubordination, huh? You’re gonna get tough, huh? Chacktar! Chacktar! Come up here!”
    Chacktar appeared at the head of the ladder. Behind him, Spar could see Folston and Peg Mannering. The three came up to the deck.
    Chacktar said, “What do you try to do, Captain? Kill us?”
    A fourth person, Felice Bereau, came up and approached Spar with an unsteady walk, holding fast to the rail. “Oh, Captain, can’t you do something about this? We’ll all drown!” She fixed a ravishing glance upon Spar and moved a little closer, intimately. “You wouldn’t want poor Felice to drown, would you?”
    “What makes you think we’ll drown?” Spar asked them.
    They all looked at Folston who colored a little. Perry said, “He knows more about the sea than you do, Captain. He says we’re rolling too much. He says we’ll go under if we don’t make for Hurricane Hill.”
    “I believe we’re in that vicinity,” said Folston.
    “Is there any real danger?” said Peg Mannering.
    Spar looked them over. “A brave lot you are. A brave lot. Yes, we’re near Hurricane Hill, but if you think I’m a big enough fool to put in . there, you’re all mad.”
    “But what’s wrong with it?” asked Peg Mannering.
    “ Wrong with it?” shouted Spar. “Everything is wrong with it. That’s the place all these hurricanes start. There’s been more ships sunk off that island than you can count and more men drowned.”
    “Sailor’s superstition,” mocked Folston.
    “Yes,