The Monster that Slipped Its Leash

He tossed it out on deck with a grunt of satisfaction. "Nothing to
hurt!" he said to the engineer. "However, I'd rather be inside the capes
in this blow. The old skimmer ain't what she used to be. Johnson, do
you know that this schooner is all of two feet longer when she is loaded
than when she is light?"

"I knew she was hogged, but I didn't know it was as bad as that."

"I put the lead-line on her before she went into the coal-dock this
trip, and I measured her again in the stream yesterday. With a cargo
she just humps right up like a monkey bound for war. That's the way with
these five-masters! They get such a racking they go wrong before the
owners realize."

"They'll never build any more, and I don't suppose they want to spend
much money on the old ones," suggested the engineer.

"Naturally not, when they ain't paying dividends as it is." He stepped
to the weather rail and sniffed. "I reckon the old man will be dropping
the killick before long," he said.

Mayo knew something of the methods of schooner masters and was not
surprised by the last remark.

In the gallant old days, when it was the custom to thrash out a blow,
the later plan of anchoring a big craft in the high seas off the
Delaware coast, with Europe for a lee, would have been viewed with a
certain amount of horror by a captain.