"Yes; it looks like bad weather;" and the mist as she spoke came rolling
down the sound with the swoop of a falcon. Hitherto they had been
singularly fortunate. "Fine weather and fair winds," had been the usual
morning greeting; or if a passing squall appeared it had found them near
to some sheltered loch, or inlet. Lord Forfar was for putting into
Boisdale, for the glass was going down rapidly; but Lady Bruce was sure,
"a little breeze would be a most delightful change."
It was not very likely to be so with the wind rising out of the northeast;
and ere long the Petrel's topmast was sent down, and a double reef put in
her mainsail. Until midnight it blew hard with a fast rising sea, and a
mist as thick as a hedge. After this, it was ugly weather all the way
home, and as they passed Ailsa Craig the wind changed to full north, and
fetched the sea down with it.
"The waves come high down the Frith," said Maggie to the owner of the
yacht, a hardy young fellow who leaned against the taffrail, and watched
his boat hammering through the heavy seas.
"They come any size you like down here, Miss Promoter. But our skipper is
a good sailor; he has only one fault; he drives a boat without mercy.
Still I think even Captain Toddy will run for shelter to-night."
Captain Toddy thought not. He had a name for carrying on, and the Petrel
was not his boat if she did get a bit crushed. So the ladies, sitting
under the weather railing, watched the storm from among the folds of
yellow oilskin in which they had been tucked. Ere long, in the thick of a
gusty squall, the Petrel took her first header very heavily. Her bow
disappeared to the butts, and with a tremendous noise the sea came over
the deck in a deluge. Every plunge she made it was the same thing, and all
of the ladies were thoroughly drenched. The cabin was wet and miserable,
and there was no promise of any favorable change. Evidently the best thing
to do was to make for the port of Ayr; for on the following day Mary
Campbell was suffering very much from the effects of her exposure, and
when Captain Toddy let the anchor fly underfoot pretty near the 'auld
Brig' she was in a high fever, and breathing with pain and difficulty.