CHAPTER XVII
THE RETAKING OF THE "COLUMBIA"
"We are in for another storm!"
It was Larry who made the remark. He was in one of the tops with Luke, gazing anxiously to the westward, where the black clouds were beginning to pile up.
"Right you are, lad—and it's going to be a heavy one, unless I miss my guess."
The storm broke half an hour later, and the wind and rain were so furious that our friends were glad to leave the top and go below. But some of the Japanese sailors did not appear to mind the lashing of the elements and remained on deck as if nothing out of the ordinary was occurring.
"These chaps beat me!" said Larry. "They are certainly as tough as pine knots. I never saw their equal."
"I'm beginning to think that the Japanese are a wonderful nation," put in Tom Grandon, seriously. "I used to look at them as something like the Chinese. But there is a wide difference between them and the Chinks."
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