CHAPTER XVI

THE PICKET-BOAT'S ORDEAL "Best close that hatch," said the coxswain of the picket-boat, as heavy raindrops began to patter down upon the deck. One of the men rolled out of his bunk on one of the lockers and made his way through the dense cloud of tobacco-smoke to the ladder of the fore-hatch. "Crikey!" he exclaimed. "'Tain't half comin' down. Thank goodness we've a deck over our heads, not like Mr. Annesley and those blokes up yonder. Think it'll blow after this?" The coxswain thought that it might. "But we're s…