Howard sat near the binnacle and watched the compass while the sloop held her course so steadily that one would have declared that the card was nailed fast.

Not a quarter of a point did she deviate from her course.

My old friend had owned and sailed a pilot-sloop on the river for many years, but this feat took the wind out of his sails at last, and he cried, "I'll be stranded on Chico Bank if ever I saw the like of it!" Perhaps he had never given his sloop a chance to show what she could do.

The point I make for the _Spray_ here, above all other points, is that she sailed in shoal water and in a strong current, with other difficult and unusual conditions.

Captain Howard took all this into account.
In all the years away from his native home Howard had not forgotten the art of making fish chowders; and to prove this he brought along some fine rockfish and prepared a mess fit for kings.