onfidence felt by the young master's two faithful followers was
shared by most of the crew.

The _Ouzel Galley_ behaved admirably; she ran on before the fast-rising
seas roaring up alongside. The wind whistled in her rigging, and bright
flashes of lightning darted from the black clouds now gathering thickly
overhead.

As the night drew on the wind increased, and it was now blowing a
regular hurricane; still, as long as there was plenty of sea room, no
danger was to be apprehended, unless indeed, the ship should be struck
by lightning, against which no skill or seamanship could guard. No one
on board could hide from himself that such might possibly occur, as the
flashes succeeded each other with still greater and greater rapidity,
the lightning frequently running along the yards, now playing round the
mast-heads, now darting over the foaming seas in snake-like forms. In
the intervals between the flashes, so dense was the darkness that the
eye failed to see half across the deck, and had another vessel been
overtaken, the _Ouzel Galley_ might have run her down before she could
have been perceived. The canvas had been reduced to a single
close-reefed fore-topsail, which so tugged and strained at the mast that
every instant it seemed as if about to be torn out of the bolt-ropes.
As long as the wind blew from the westward or south-west, the ship could
run on with safety till she had got to the eastward of Cuba, and before
that time there was every probability of the hurricane ceasing. Her
only safe course was to keep directly before it, for if she were to
bring the seas abeam, they would to a certainty sweep over her and carry
everything before them.

Owen remained on deck, holding on to a stanchion, while two of his
stoutest hands were at the wheel. For some hours he had stood at his
post, feeling no apprehension of danger, when towards the end of the
middle watch the wind shifted suddenly to the southward, blowing with
even greater fury than before. The helm was put a-starboard, and the
_Ouzel Galley_ was now running towards the dangerous coast of Cuba.
There was no help for it; but Owen expected, as is often the case during
a hurricane, that ere long the wind would again shift.

For a short time there was a comparative lull, and all on board hoped
that the gale was breaking.

"We shall be able, I am thinking, sir, to make sail and haul off from
the shore by morning," observed his first mate. "It is well not to