e never been at
sea before, at the change of the monsoon, I am no judge at all; but
it certainly looks as if we were in for a bad gale. At any rate, we
shall be safer, here, than we were in that hut in the mountains."

The Malay made no reply, for some time. Then he said:

"Yes, sahib, but there was something to do, there. Directly we got
in, you began to prepare for an escape. It was not certain that we
should succeed. They might have come in and killed us, before you
were ready but, as we were busy, we had not much time to think of
the danger.

"Here we can do nothing."

"No. But, as you see, everything has already been done. You and I
have not been working, but the sailors have been busy in taking off
sail, and getting down all the upper spars. We are ready for the
worst, now; just as we were when we had opened the passage for our
escape, and we felt fairly confident--although we might meet with
many dangers, we had a good chance of getting safely away."

"There are the danger signals, Lindsay," the captain said, as a
pale light suddenly shone out above.

Looking up, Harry saw a ball of fire on the main-mast head.
Presently, this seemed to roll down the mast, till it reached the
top-sail yard; then it broke into two, and these rolled out until
they remained stationary, one at each end of the yard. Harry had
never seen this phenomenon before.

"What is it?" he asked Fairclough, in an awed voice.

"They are often seen, before the outburst of a severe tempest. Of
course, they look like balls of phosphorus; but in reality they are
electric, and are a sign that the whole atmosphere is charged with
electricity. Sailors have all sorts of superstitions about them
but, of course, excepting that they are signs of the condition of
the air, they are perfectly harmless."

He raised his voice.

"Don't stand near the foot of the masts, lads; keep well away from
them. There is nothing to be afraid of, in those lights; but if we
happened to be struck by lightning and it ran down the mast, some
of you might be knocked over.

"I don't know why," he continued, to Harry, "the first flash of
lightning at the beginning of a storm is always the most dangerous.
I can't account for it, in any way, but there is no question as to
the fact. I always feel relieved when the first clap of thunder is
over; for I know, then, that we are comparatively safe from danger,
in that way."

Gradually the stars disappeared.

"Mr. Hardy," th