ithout having his words blown down his
throat.

"I've lost my hat," growled the learned gentleman, almost choked with
ill-nature within, and the ill-wind without.

"Ask the captain to send a boat for it," laughed Mr. Stoute. "There he
stands! Upon my word, he is a wonder to me! He handles the vessel like
an old admiral who has been imbedded in salt for forty years!"

"Any boy could do it!" snarled the irate professor.

"It is fortunate that Captain Kendall went on deck when he did," added
Mr. Stoute. "We should all have gone to the bottom if they hadn't taken
in sail in season."

"You distress yourself with mighty bugbears," sneered Mr. Hamblin. "I am
very sorry to see you encouraging insubordination among your pupils,
and--"

And a blast more savage than any which had before struck the vessel
ended the professor's speech; for, while it drenched him with salt
water, it gave him all he wanted to do to hold on for his life. He
worked himself round under the lee of the mainmast, and held on with
both hands at the fife-rail, his breath blown down into his lungs by the
wind.

The squall was not one of those which come and go in a few moments; and,
in a short time, the sea had been lashed into a boiling, roaring,
foam-capped maelstrom. The Josephine rolled and pitched most fearfully.
Below there was a fierce crashing of everything movable, while the winds
howled a savage storm-song through the swaying rigging. By the captain's
order, the crew had, with great difficulty, extended several life-lines
across the deck, for the safety of those who were compelled to move
about in executing the various manoeuvres which the emergency
required.

The angry professor began to cool off under the severe regimen of the
tempest. He was drenched to the skin by the spray, and it required the
utmost activity on his part to enable him to keep his hold upon the
fife-rail. Now the vessel rolled, and pitched him upon his moorings; and
then rolled again, jerking him, at arm's length, away from them, his
muscles cracking under the pressure. Professor Stoute, determined to be
on the safe side, had passed the end of the lee topgallant brace around
his body, and secured himself to one of the belaying pins. Nothing ever
disturbed his equanimity, and though he was doubtless fully impressed by
the sublimity of the storm, he was just as jolly and good-natured as
ever.

The captain and the executive officer were holding on at one of the
life-lin