As respects her condition, it is easily described.  She had but the three sails bent,—­mainsail, foresail, and jib.  Her topmasts had been struck, and all the hamper that belonged to them was below.  The mainsail was single reefed, and the foresail and jib were without their bonnets, as has already been mentioned.  This was somewhat short canvas, but Mulford knew that it would render his craft more manageable in the event of a blow.  Usually, at that season and in that region, the east trades prevailed with great steadiness, sometimes diverging a little south of east, as at present, and generally blowing fresh.  But, for a short time previously to, and ever since the tornado, the wind had been unsettled, the old currents appearing to regain their ascendancy by fits, and then losing it, in squalls, contrary currents, and even by short calms.

The conference between Jack Tier and Rose was frank and confidential.

“We must depend mainly on you,” said the latter, turning to look toward the spot where Mulford lay, buried in the deepest sleep that had ever gained power over him.  “Harry is so fatigued!  It would be shameful to awaken him a moment sooner than is necessary.”

“Ay, ay; so it is always with young women, when they lets a young man gain their ears,” answered Jack, without the least circumlocution; “so it is, and so it always will be, I’m afeard.  Nevertheless, men is willians.”

Rose was not affronted at this plain allusion to the power that Mulford had obtained over her feelings.  It would seem that Jack had got to be so intimate in the cabins, that his sex was, in a measure, forgotten; and it is certain that his recent services were not.  Without a question, but for his interference, the pretty Rose Budd would, at that moment, have been the prisoner of Spike, and most probably the victim of his design to compel her to marry him.

“All men are not Stephen Spikes,” said Rose, earnestly, “and least of all is Harry Mulford to be reckoned as one of his sort.  But, we must manage to take care of the schooner the whole night, and let Harry get his rest.  He wished to be called at twelve, but we can easily let the hour go by, and not awaken him.”

“The commanding officer ought not to be sarved so, Miss Rose.  What he says is to be done.”

“I know it, Jack, as to ordinary matters; but Harry left these orders that we might have our share of rest, and for no other reason at all.  And what is to prevent our having it?  We are four, and can divide ourselves into two watches; one watch can sleep while the other keeps a look-out.”

“Ay, ay, and pretty watches they would be!  There’s Madam Budd, now; why, she’s quite a navigator, and knows all about weerin’ and haulin’, and I dares to say could put the schooner about, to keep her off the reef, on a pinch; though which way the craft would come round, could best be told a’ter it has been done.  It’s as much as I’d undertake myself, Miss Rose, to take care of the schooner, should it come on to blow; and as for you, Madam Budd, and that squalling Irishwoman, you’d be no better than so many housewives ashore.”