the sky's
getting a bit dark, and a shower's coming."

But Ned's knowledge of the typhoon of the eastern tropical seas was
naturally not very extensive, and he altered his opinion an hour later,
when, in spite of the speed with which the yacht had rushed away before
the terrible storm sweeping after them, the sea was white, and half the
heavens black as night. It was at half-speed the yacht ran in through
the gates of the reef into smooth water, and then turning round at full
speed again, went on and on, till she was well under the lee of the
great volcano, which did its part when anchors were down, and head to
the wind they lay facing the quarter from which the awful hurricane
blew.

There was no narrative of adventure given by the seekers or the sought
that night, nor any thought of sleep, for officers and men never left
the deck, but passed a terrible time of anxiety in the expectation that
one of the terrific blasts would tear the little vessel from her
moorings and cast her upon the inner side of the reef. But the steam
was kept up, and the propeller gently turning, sufficient to ease the
strain upon the cables, and the anchors held fast.

"She's a splendid craft, gentlemen," said the captain, when they had
assembled for refreshment in the cabin, during one of the brief lulls of
the furious blast; "but I'm afraid we should none of us have seen
another day if we had been caught outside. A man feels very small at a
time like this. The worst hurricane I was ever in. Didn't think the
wind could blow so fiercely, Mr Jack, eh?"

Jack shook his head.

"It feels," he said slowly, "as if the world had broke away, and was
rushing on through space faster and faster, and never to stop again."

"Yes, sir," said the captain quietly, as he gazed at the thoughtful lad.
"You're a scholar, and have read and studied these things. So have I,
sir, but not from books, and it seems to me that these things work by
their wonderful laws for reasons far beyond our little minds to grasp,
and all are working for some great end."

No one answered, and the wind began to increase in violence again, the
noise almost stifling the captain's next words:--

"But we have not broken away, sir, and the sun will rise to a minute in
the morning, just as if this hurricane had not come, and please God
everything around us will be calm; but be sure yonder you will hardly
know the island, it will be such a wreck."

The captain's words were tr