get
nearer the Cuba coast than we can help. There are not a few low keys
and sandbanks to bring us up; or one of the enemy's cruisers may be
spying us, and it would give us a job to get away from her."

"As to that, I am not much afraid," answered Owen. "I shall be thankful
when the hurricane is over and we can stand on our course."

The hurricane, however, was not over. Again the wind struck the ship
with tremendous force, the lightning, as before, playing round her,
crackling and hissing as it touched the wildly tossing waves. Suddenly
there came a frightful crash. The splinters flew on every side, and the
tall mainmast, tottering for a moment, fell over the side, breaking away
the bulwarks--either it or the lightning which had riven it killing
three men who were standing near. In its fall it carried away the
mizen-mast.

"Fire! fire! the ship is on fire!" shouted several voices. "Put it out,
then, my lads, and clear away the wreck," cried Owen, seizing an axe
which hung inside the companion-hatch, he himself setting the example,
which was followed by his mates and several others.

While one party was engaged in cutting away the shrouds and running
rigging, so as to let the blazing mass fall into the water, another was
handing up buckets and throwing water over the stump of the mainmast.
The wreck of the mast being got rid of, the flames on deck were soon
extinguished; but a cry came from below that the heel of the mast was on
fire.

"We shall soon put that out, lads," cried Owen, with all the calmness he
could assume; and leading the way into the hold, bucket in hand, he
forced a passage through a dense mass of smoke until he reached the seat
of the fire.

There he took his post, in spite of the heat and the clouds of smoke
surrounding him. As the buckets were handed to him, he hove the water
over the burning wood. Bravely he fought the flames, and at length was
able to shout to his crew that they were extinguished. Having assured
himself of this fact, he hurried on deck. The foremast stood, carrying
the closely reefed fore-topsail.

"It can't be helped," he observed to his first officer. "As soon as the
weather moderates, we must set up fresh backstays to the mast and try
and rig jury-masts, which will carry us back to Port Royal."

"I shall be thankful if we can keep clear of the land and escape the
enemy's cruisers we were talking about, sir," answered the mate, who,
though a steady man, had