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happening, topside, by the way
his vessel made the sudden roll to starboard and sent him crashing
into the bulkhead. Now, they had it, he thought to himself, because
not one of them up there knew what to do next. “Haul up that jib!”
he hollered, even though no one could hear him from down there.
“Get some way on before we lose her in this--”
    BOOM! There was the loud bang of rigging as
the boat wallowed over onto her other side, caught in the steep
trough between waves. Which gave him a decision to make. Take the
few minutes to replace the broken belt and get the engine going,
again, or leave it to dash topside, and pull the foresails up so
the boat would at least have enough steerage not to founder. “God
help me!” he cried, heaving himself to his feet. “I’m at sea with a
bunch of idiots!”
    It was at that moment a dark form darted
past him, and he distinctly heard, “Fix the belt-- I got the
sails!” in a tone of such confidence that his old Navy days kicked
back in, and he found himself “snapping to” without so much as a
care who it was.
    He only knew he had a bona fide seaman
aboard, after all, and a flood of relief washed over him. In the
nick of time, too. Then it occurred to him he had never had such
immediate attention from the Almighty in his entire life. Something
which led to the disturbing conclusion that, either an angel had
just passed by, or…
    The Dreadnaught had gone down,
already, and he was about to meet his maker.

 
    6
     
    A tumult of thoughts ran through Stella’s
mind during those moments. It wasn’t the first time she had faced
death, but it was the first time she had ever been able to stand up
to that terror with such peace and utter clarity. What happened
next, played out before her in a sort of dreamlike slow motion,
giving her plenty of time to react.
    The first thing she did was to grab hold of
Millie as she tumbled by, and pull her to the safety of the rail,
where she could hold on. Then as the boat began to roll in the
opposite direction, she felt the line she had dropped begin to
whistle away over her feet, and picked it up. Just in time to wind
it around a nearby cleat (why, she had never managed the task that
fast before!), and stop the free-swinging boom from plowing into
Mason, who had his back to it, trying to tie off from the other
side. Disaster avoided. Almost like a miracle.
    Which is just what she was thinking when she
saw the dark stranger come running past her, right out onto the
bowsprit that hung over all those wildly tossing waves. He peeled
the canvas back with quick agility on yet another sail that was
stashed there, and began hauling it up the stays. Only to be
stopped by a tangle of tattered mainsail that had wound itself
round the thick wire, about a third of the way up, when the big one
had torn loose.
    “Lou!” called a familiar masculine voice.
“Ninja ladder!”
    The girl was beside him in an instant, and
what Stella saw next was amazing.
    He bent down long enough for her to climb up
onto his shoulders and grab hold of the bunched up sail, in order
to pull herself along the wire as he slowly stood up, again. Still
standing on his shoulders when she reached the place the tattered
pieces were wrapped around, he snatched a knife from his belt and
handed it up to her.
    The wire was attached at the top of the
foremast, slanting down at an angle to the very tip of the bow.
Another miracle. If the obstruction had been any higher, she
wouldn’t have been able to reach it. As it was, she had the
offending tatters cut away and was back on deck in a mere few
moments.
    At which point, Cole DeForio (Stella
recognized him the minute Lou Edna climbed up and down over him
with such confidence and familiarity), quickly finished hauling up
the large jib sail, while Mason pulled the trailing line attached
to it around a nearby winch-drum and tied it off. The boat
immediately headed back up into the wind, and regained enough
control for the Colonel to have