Meanwhile, Boyle saw
to the safe stowing in the remaining canoes of the wounded Indians in
the fore cabin, and a few furnace bars attached to a rope anchored them
in mid channel, whence their friends could bring them to shore later.
At last, the captain of the _Kansas_ had the supreme satisfaction of
hearing the clang of the electric bell in the engine-room as he put the
telegraph lever successively to "Stand By," and "Slow Ahead."
Gradually the ship crept north, gaining way as the engines increased
their stroke and the full body of the ebb tide made its volume felt.
Round swung the _Kansas_ to the west, just as the sun cleared the
highest peak of the unknown mountains. Courtenay had not forgotten his
bearings. Although he had men using the lead constantly, he did not
need their help. Once clear of the reefs which he had seen when the
vessel first ran into the inlet, he made straight for the pillar rock,
and rather raised the hair of the man at the wheel, not to mention most
of the people on deck, by the nearness of his approach to that solitary
buoy set in the midst of a broken sea.
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