"Are you all ready, there?" called Donald, raising his voice above the noise made by the banging of the mainsail in the fresh breeze.
"All ready," replied Dick Adams, who was holding the rode with a turn around the bitts.
"Don't let her go till I give the word," added Donald. "I want to fill on the port tack."
"Ay, ay!" shouted Dick; "on the port tack."
This was a very important matter, for the course from the judges' station to Turtle Head would give the yachts the wind on the port quarter; and if any of them came about the wrong way, they would be compelled to gybe, which was not a pleasant operation in so stiff a breeze. Donald kept hold of the main-sheet, and by managing the sail a little, contrived to have the tendency of the Maud in the right direction, so that her sail would fill on the port tack. He saw that Dick Adams had the tender on the port bow, so that the yacht would not run it down when she went off.
"There goes the gun!" shouted Rodman, very much excited as the decisive moment came.
But Dick Adams held on, as he had been instructed to do, and pulled with all his might, in order to throw the head of the Maud in the right direction.
"Hoist the jib!" shouted Donald, when he saw that the yacht was sure to cast on her port tack.
Rodman and Norwood worked lively; and in an instant the jib was up, and Mr. Norwood had gathered up the lee sheet.
"Let go!" added Donald, when he felt that the Maud was in condition to go off lively.
She did go off with a bound and a spring. Donald crowded the helm hard up, so that the Maud wore short around.
"Let off the sheet, lively, Kennedy!" said the skipper. "Ease off the jib-sheet, Mr. Norwood!"
"We shall be afoul of the Phantom!" cried Dick Adams, as he began to run out on the foot-ropes by the bowsprit.
"Lay in, Dick!" shouted Donald. "Don't go out there!"
Dick retraced his steps, and came on deck. The Phantom had not cast in the right direction, and was coming around on the starboard tack, which had very nearly produced a collision with the Maud, the two bowsprits coming within a few inches of each other.
"I was going out to fend off," said Dick, as he came aft, in obedience to orders.
"I was afraid you would be knocked off the bowsprit, which is a bad place to be, when two vessels put their noses together. It was a close shave, but we are all right now," replied the skipper.