maybe watch out for more than me."

* * * * *

Jan went to his room and put on his extra suit of underwear, and over
his vest he drew his sweater. From his suit-case he took his mother's
photograph and tucked it in his inside pocket. Then he went up again to
the top deck and located a life-raft--made the rounds of the boat-deck
and located the life-boats.

It was time now to study the storm. The snow was not so thick, but the
sea was making and the wind colder and stronger. A gale from the
northwest it would be when they were out in the open bay; and, besides
the wind getting stronger the sea would be higher. And it was as high
now as was good for this old-fashioned side-wheeler with her old-time
single engine.

Jan shook his head and, still shaking his head, once more made the
rounds of the boat-deck. Eight boats; and each boat might hold
twenty-five people--that is, if it was in a mill-pond. But a night like
this--how many--even if the running gear were sound? "No, no," said Jan
to himself, and reinspected the lone life-raft on the top deck. Two
cigar-shaped steel air-cylinders with a thin connecting deck was the
life-raft. Jan had seen better ones; but a raft, at least, would not
capsize.

He descended to the main deck, to where, in the gangway between house
and rail, he could find a little quiet and think things over. While
there, amidships, a sea swept up under the paddle-wheel casing. It
boomed like a gun. With it went some crackling. Again a booming--again a