Pagina 154 van 416

Captain Bijonah Tanner, by right of seniority, led the way in the

Rosan as commodore of the fleet. He stood to his tiller like a

graven image, looking neither to right nor left, but gripping his

pipe with all the strength of his remaining teeth.

He hoped that his triumph would not be lost upon his wife. Nor

was it, for it was a month afterward before the neighbors ceased

to hear how her Bige was the best captain that ever sailed out of

Freekirk Head.

At Swallowtail Bijonah rounded the point, gave one majestic wave

of his hat in farewell, and put the Rosan over on the starboard

tack, for the course was southeast, and followed practically the

wake of Code Schofield.

One after another the schooners and sloops, closely bunched, came

about as smartly as their crews could bring them--and the

smartest of them all was Nat Burns's Nettie B.