Robby again pleaded with his father, who at length stepped into the boat
with two other men, his son, another lad, and the captain.

The weather was calm and fine, so that it allowed of an awning to be
stretched over the deck, under which seats were arranged for the
accommodation of thirty or forty persons. The sailor missionary, who
acted as mate of the missionary fishing-vessel, after appropriate
prayers had been offered up and psalms sung, urged his hearers, in a
loving manner, to accept the gracious offer of salvation while there was
yet time.

All were impressed with this address; no one more so than Rob Starling's
father and the other men from the _Sea-gull_. Before leaving the vessel
the elder Starling went to the missionary, begged him for his prayers,
told him how heartily sorry he was for all his sins, and yet that he was
sure his loving Saviour would wash them all away.

Notwithstanding the calmness of the morning, there had been indications
all day of a change of weather; and just as the sun went down, the
admiral (for so the most experienced captain of the fleet elected to
that post is called) hoisted the signal for the vessels to return to
port. As the fleet had a week or more to remain out, he had been
unwilling to make the signal, though it might have been better had he
done so earlier; but even the most experienced are at times mistaken as
to the weather at sea.

Those who had been trawling all day hauled their trawls on board; and
those which had been brought up, lifted their anchors, and all made sail
together.

Before midnight a fierce gale was blowing from the westward, shifting
now from the south-west, now from the north-west, and creating a heavy
cross-sea. The fishing-vessels took different directions. Some stood
to the north, some towards the south, endeavouring, as best they could,
to beat up against the gale; but they were quickly dispersed here and
there, so that the seamen on board the _Sea-gull_, with which we have to
do, when they looked out into the gloom around, could not discover a
single sail near them. Dark seas, with white, foaming crests, rose up
on every side, threatening to fall over on the deck of the little
vessel, and send her to the bottom. Now she rose to the summit of one
of them now she sunk down into the deep trough between them; tumbling
and pitching as if the sport of their fury. The lightning flashed
vividly; the wind howled in the rigging; the waves roa