Page:At the Fall of Port Arthur.djvu/100

82 "I guess you expect to live and die a sailor, don't you, Luke?"

"Don't know but what I do, unless somebody leaves me money enough to live like a millionaire," and the old tar grinned.

Day after day passed and the Columbia kept on her course, making as straight a passage for Nagasaki as possible. One day there would be a fair breeze and the next a dead calm.

"This is unusual weather for this quarter of the globe," said Captain Ponsberry to Larry. "Like as not it will end in another hurricane."

"In that case what will you do, release Semmel and the others?"

"I may release Peterson and Shamhaven, but not Semmel, for he was the real ringleader."

There were strong signs of a storm in the air that night, but they brought forth nothing, and on the following morning the sun came up as full and bright as before. The breeze came by fits and starts, from first one direction and then another, and the man at the wheel had all he could do to keep the schooner to her course. Sails were shifted half a dozen times, but without making any improvement.

"The weather is certainly queer," said Grandon. "Puts me in mind of the time I was caught in a