the gale was ever on the increase; but, on the other hand, in order to
keep the boat free of the constantly heavier seas, he dare not lessen
the sail a bit more than he was absolutely obliged to do; but they found
that the scrap of sail they could carry gradually grew less and less.
The sea seethed so that it drove right into their faces, and Bernt and
his next eldest brother Anthony, who had hitherto helped his mother with
the sail-lines, had, at last, to hold in the yards, an expedient one
only resorts to when the boat cannot bear even the last clew--here the
fifth.

The companion boat, which had disappeared in the meantime, now suddenly
ducked up alongside again, with precisely the same amount of sail as
Elias's boat; but he now began to feel that he didn't quite like the
look of the crew on board there. The two who stood and held in the yards
(he caught a glimpse of their pale faces beneath their sou'westers)
seemed to him, by the odd light of the shining foam, more like corpses
than men, nor did they speak a single word.

A little way off to larboard he again caught sight of the high white
back of a fresh roller coming through the dark, and he got ready betimes
to receive it. The boat was laid to with its prow turned aslant towards
the on-rushing wave, while the sail was made as large as possible, so as
to get up speed enough to cleave the heavy sea and sail out of it again.
In rushed the roller with a roar like a foss; again, for an instant,
they lay on their beam ends; but, when it was over, the wife no longer
sat by the sail ropes, nor did Anthony stand there any longer holding
the yards--they had both gone overboard.

This time also Elias fancied he heard the same hideous yell in the air;
but in the midst of it he plainly heard his wife anxiously calling him