d roar
of the wind and waves had so drowned the noise of the men hammering and
moving about that the repairs appeared to have been accomplished by
magic.

As soon as Mr Meldrum went on deck, however, he could see little
alteration for the better there.

The great rolling billows, as Maury has described them, were running
high and fast, tossing their white caps in the air, looking like the
green hills of a western prairie capped with snow, and chasing each
other in sport; while the wind was still blowing a hurricane, and the
ship, resembling a crippled bird with her foretop-mast gone, was running
now before the gale under a single storm-staysail, that looked no bigger
than an ordinary sized pocket-handkerchief, at a greater rate of speed
than she would have done in a stiff breeze with all her canvas spread.

The outlook around, too, was by no means cheering.

The horizon was piled up with masses of blue-black clouds, whose ragged
edges meant mischief, and scraps of greyish white scud were flying
across the sky in all directions--now towards the same point as the
wind, now against it, as if there were contending currents aloft and
they could not decide what precise course to travel.

Captain Dinks, who, with the other officers, had been on deck all night,
looked haggard and care-worn. The men, too, seemed worn-out, which
could not be wondered at, as no sooner had the watch whose turn it was
to be relieved, got below than they were roused up again at the call of
"All hands"--when, of course, they had to tumble on deck again, without
a moment's time for the rest and repose they needed after the exposure
they were subjected to in battling up and down the rigging in the
tempest of wind and rain and hail that had lasted through the livelong
night.

"Not a very bright look-out!" said the captain, trying to speak
cheerily, but failing miserably in the attempt. "Old Boreas, too, I'm
afraid, is going to put on a fresh hand to the bellows, for the
barometer has fallen again."

"Indeed?" answered Mr Meldrum.

"Yes," continued Captain Dinks; "it stood at 29.50 at three o'clock this
morning, and when I looked just now it was at 29.25."

"That's bad," said the other; "it shows we've not got the worst of the
cyclone yet."

"No," replied the captain; "we've got that all to come! Luckily, I sent
down the topgallant-masts yesterday evening, or we'd have had every
stick out of her by now:-- they would have been safe to go wh