Page 297 of 416

"He is the kind of chap, in regard to sailing, who doesn't seem

to have the 'feel' of the thing. There is a certain instinct of

forces and balance that is either natural or acquired. Nat's is

acquired. Why, I can remember just as well when I was eight years

old my father used to let me take a short trick at the wheel in

good weather, and I took to it naturally. Once on the Banks in a

gale, when I was only eighteen, the men below said that my trick

at the wheel was the only one when they got any sleep.

"Now, those two things being the case, Elsa, how did Nat Burns

expect to win the second race from the May?"

"I don't know. It doesn't seem possible that he could win."

"Of course it doesn't, and yet his father writes here that Nat

'swears he can't lose.' Well, now, you know, a man that swears he

can't lose is pretty positive."

"Did he try to bet with you for the second race?" asked Elsa.