told him the wind was undoubtedly
falling (which he knew as well as I): and after this inevitable
interchange of the uppermost news and anxieties of the occasion, we bade
GOD bless each other, and I said the prayers of my babyhood because they
were shortest, and fell fast asleep.

The noises that woke us were new noises, but they made up the whole of
that peculiar sound which is the sum of human excitement. "We are going
down this time," was my thought, and I found myself less philosophical
about it than I had imagined. Neither Alister nor I were long in putting
on our clothes, and we rushed up on deck without exchanging a word. By
the time we got there, where the whole ship's crew had gone before us,
we were as wildly excited as any one of them, though we had not a notion
what it was all about. I knew enough now for the first glance to tell me
that the ship was in no special danger. Even I could tell that the gale
had gone down, the night was clear, and between the scudding of black
clouds with silver linings, the moon and stars shone very beautifully,
though it made one giddy to look at them from the weird way in which the
masts and yards seemed to whip across the sky.

We still rolled, and when the side of the ship went up, it felt almost
overhead, and I could see absolutely nothing of the sea, which was
vexatious, as that was obviously the point of interest. The rigging on
that side was as full of men as a bare garden-tree might be of sparrows,
and all along the lee bulwarks they sat and crouched like sea-birds on a
line of rock. Suddenly we rolled, down went the leeside, and I with it,
but I caught hold of the lowest step of the forecastle ladder and sat
fast. Then as we dipped I saw all that they were seeing from the masts
and rigging--the yet restless sea with fast-running waves, alternately
inky black, and of a strange bright metallic lead-colour, on which the
scud as it drove across the moon made queer racing shadows. And it was
on this stormy sea that every eye from the captain's to the cook's was
strained.

Roll! down we went again to starboard, and up went the bulwarks and I
could see nothing but the sky and the stars, and the masts and yards
whipping across them as before, though the excitement grew till I could
bear it no longer, and scrambled up the ladder on to the forecastle, and
pushed my way to the edge and lay face downwards, holding on for my life
that I might not be blown away, whilst I was tryi