Page:Cruise of the Dry Dock.djvu/69

 Madden. “I'll take it myself till midnight, eight bells. Then send Greer.”

Hogan saluted in the darkness and turned about for his cabin. Madden began a careful journey aft toward the wheel.

He fought his way to the ladder and climbed up into the night, sometimes clinging like a fly to the underside of the reeling wall, sometimes going up a steep slant. Gusts of spume and foam whipped him all the way up. Once on top of the wall, he clung to the inside rail and began pulling himself carefully around toward the rear bridge. At this height the full force of the wind almost tore him from his reeling anchorage. At last he turned onto the bridge and moved toward the binnacle light.

“You'll find 'er a little 'ard, sir,” remarked the steersman as he turned over the wheel to Madden. “Good night, sir.”

“Good night,” returned the American, and he watched the fellow's form disappear in the darkness.

Madden gripped the spokes of the wheel and fell to watching the signal light in the center of the forward bridge and the stern lantern of the