Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/157

 ever, but the weather-cloth offered surprising protection from the wind. A sailor slipped the hawsers over the posts on the pier. Other sailors drew in the hawsers and stowed them away. The captain pressed his signal-bell, and the Iroquois began to move astern. She backed out into the stream and then turned and headed for the sea, into the teeth of the driving storm.

The beating rain obscured the view. Fog made the shores almost indistinguishable, for in from the sea, blown on the breath of the icy blasts, came racing great clouds of murky white vapor that screened all they touched. The captain looked grim and inscrutable. His jaw was set hard. He stood by the wheel-house, conning the ship. At half speed the Iroquois slowly nosed her way down the channel. Wiped from view was the beautiful scene that had so delighted Henry a few short hours before. Nothing could be seen but occasional glimpses of shore, the tumultuous, muddy water, and the driving curtains of fog.

One by one the captain made the proper turns in the tortuous channel. As the Iroquois stood farther and farther out toward the sea, the waters became ever more tumultuous, the winds roared more fiercely, and the fog shut in ever denser. Fathom by fathom the ship crept past one after another of the island defenses along the way, that