came harder as it drove us on.  Before we knew it, the whole kit and boodle of us were in a devil of a shakeup there in the broad water.  D’ri and I were down among the horses and near being trampled under in the roll.  We tried to put about then, but the great gusts of wind made us lower sail and drop anchor in a hurry.  Soon the horses were all in a tumble and one on top of the other.  We had to jump from back to back to save ourselves.  It was no pretty business, I can tell you, to get to the stairway.  D’ri was stripped of a boot-leg, and I was cut in the chin by a front hoof, going ten feet or so to the upper deck.  To the man who was never hit in the chin by a horse’s hoof let me say there is no such remedy for a proud spirit.  Bullets are much easier to put up with and keep a civil tongue in one’s head.  That lower deck was a kind of horses’ hell.  We had to let them alone.  They got astraddle of one another’s necks, and were cut from ear to fetlock—­those that lived, for some of them, I could see, were being trampled to death.  How many I never knew, for suddenly we hit a reef there in the storm and the black night.  I knew we had drifted to the north shore, and as the sea began to wash over us it was every man for himself.  The brig went up and down like a sledge-hammer, and at every blow her sides were cracking and caving.  She keeled over suddenly, and was emptied of horse and man.  A big wave flung me far among the floundering horses.  My fingers caught in a wet mane; I clung desperately between crowding flanks.  Then a big wave went over us.  I hung on, coming up astride my capture.  He swam vigorously, his nose high, blowing like a trumpet.  I thought we were in for a time of it, and had very little hope for any landing, save in kingdom come.  Every minute I was head under in the wash, and the roaring filled me with that mighty terror of the windfall.  But, on my word, there is no captain like a good horse in bad water.  Suddenly I felt him hit the bottom and go forward on his knees.  Then he reared up, and began to jump in the sand.  A big wave washed him down again.  He fell on his side in a shallow, but rose and ran wearily over a soft beach.  In the blackness around me I could see nothing.  A branch whipped me in the face, and I ducked.  I was not quick enough; it was like fencing in the dark.  A big bough hit me, raking the withers of my horse, and I rolled off headlong in a lot of bushes.  The horse went on, out of hearing, but I was glad enough to lie still, for I had begun to know of my bruises.  In a few minutes I took off my boots and emptied them, and wrung my blouse, and lay back, cursing my ill luck.