ll ride to leeward of it as snug as if we were in
the London Dock--almost."

As he spoke, he skilfully luffed the boat up under the lee of the mass;
and Bob, with a vigorous sweep or two of the boat-hook, managed to fish
up the standing part of the main brace with the block still attached.
Through this block he rove the end of the launch's painter, and belayed
it on board, thus causing her to ride to the wreckage by a sort of slip-
line. The other apprentices meanwhile lost no time in taking in and
stowing the canvas; and in a few minutes the launch was riding at her
floating anchor in perfect safety and in comparative comfort; still
tossing wildly, it is true, but no longer shipping a drop of water
excepting the spray which blew over her from the seas as they broke on
the wreckage.

Toward noon on the following day the gale broke; and by sunset it had
moderated to a strong breeze. On that evening they were blessed with a
glimpse of the sun once more, for just before the moment of his setting
the canopy of cloud which had hung overhead for so long broke up,
leaving great gaps through which the blue sky could be seen, and
revealing the glorious luminary upon the verge of the western horizon,
surrounded by a magnificent framework of jagged and tattered clouds, the
larger masses of which were of a dull purplish hue, with blotches of
crimson here and there, and with edges of the purest gold; while the
smaller fragments streamed athwart the sky, lavishly painted with the
richest tints of the rainbow.

They hung on to the wreckage all that night, the wind being still
against them; and the next morning Lance, suspecting that there might be
a few fish congregated about the mass of broken spars, as is frequently
the case, roused out the lines and managed to hook over a dozen gaudily
marked and curiously shaped fish of decent size, the whole of which were
devoured with the greatest gusto that day at dinner, notwithstanding the
rather repulsive aspect which some of them presented.

That night the wind, which had dwindled away to a gentle breeze,
changed, and blew once more from the westward; and the sea having also
gone down to a great extent, our adventurers cast off from the wreckage
which had so opportunely provided them with a shelter from the fury of
the gale, and with whole canvas and flowing sheets stood away once more
on a north-easterly course.

In addition to the delay which the gale had occasioned them, Captain