104 VIKINGS OF TO-DAY 



We stopped and listened. Yes, it was a fog-horn. 

 This confirmed our recent diagnosis of " Ragged 

 Islands," and once more we knew where we were. 

 Night saw us safely berthed in Catalina Harbour, 

 where we managed to coal ship before going to rest. 

 With no small feelings of satisfaction we went be- 

 low that night. True the locker was hard to lie on, 

 but the anxiety and subsequent success of that first 

 day was a sure soporific, combined with the fact that 

 the previous night had been none too restful, for we 

 had then no confidence in the powers of the Princess 

 May. Here we found our compass was still incor- 

 rect, so we unshipped it altogether and carried it 

 forward, to be further from the magnetic influence 

 of certain iron handles. Right gaily we left har- 

 bour next morning, but outside found a new ex- 

 perience. The wind had veered round and was 

 blowing on shore, with a chilling drizzly rain to 

 enhance the effect of the nasty lop of the sea. Our 

 loose deck gear began to go overboard, and among 

 it our boat-hook took leave of us. Being heavy at 

 one end it disappeared from sight at once. It was 

 gaily painted black and white, and we were sorry 

 to lose it, being our only one. As I looked back it 

 suddenly rose again, lifting its painted handle high 

 out of water, as if to ask for help. We couldn't 

 well desert it after that, and so went round to pick 

 it up. Our log has no record of the number of 

 circles we completed ; but if the reader has ever 

 pursued a stick with one heavy end in a choppy sea, 



