Pagina 362 van 416

By herself and loaded only with ballast, the Nettie was a better

sailor in a beating game, for she was older and heavier than the

Charming Lass. But now she had but a thousand quintal of fish

compared to the sixteen hundred of her rival. This difference

gave the Lass much needed stability without which she could never

have hoped to win from the Burns schooner.

The two were, therefore, about equally matched, and it was

evident that the contest would resolve itself into one of

sail-carrying, seamanship, and nerve.

"That other feller's comin' up fast!" said Pete Ellinwood, and

Code looked back to see the strange schooner looming larger and

larger in his wake. He knew that no vessel in the Grande Mignon

fleet could ever have caught the Lass the way he had been driving

her, and yet she was not near enough for him to get a good view

of her.

"If she's a fisherman," said Code, "I'll pull the Lass out of

water before she beats us in."

It was killing work, the last beat home.