er the stern of the vessel, a hazy
obscurity enveloping all below and around.

I roused myself with a start, thinking this effect was produced by the
gloom of night, and that I had fallen asleep while weaving my quaint
fancies anent the mermaidens; but a couple of sharp strokes of the
ship's bell sounding through the still air at that moment told me it was
only nine o'clock. I then recognised the fact that I must seek some
other reason for the sombre tone of the sea, as I knew well enough that
the little beacons in the sky that had before lit it up, were not in the
habit of drawing on their hatches until it was pretty nearly time for
the sun to set about getting up for his day's work, unless something out
of the common was going to happen.

Looking up, therefore, I was surprised to see a dense black cloud now
covering over the heavens like a pall.

It must have crept up from somewhere almost instantaneously; for, twenty
minutes before, the sky was clear and bright, while now it was totally
obscured from the horizon to the zenith, the angel of darkness seeming
to be treading over the face of the deep.

Just then, away ahead on the starboard bow to the eastwards, a window
appeared to be opened for an instant in the dense veil, from which a
vivid flash of lightning came forth, making the darkness even more
visible as the cloud closed up again.

"Shall I go and hail Captain Miles now, sir?" I heard Jackson ask Mr
Marline near me, although I could not clearly make out either of them in
the thick gloom--indeed, I could not see to the other side of the deck,
or perceive the mizzen-mast even.

"No, I hardly think there's any need yet," I distinguished Mr Marline's
voice say in reply. "It's only a flash of lightning--nothing to make a
fuss about, for there isn't a breath of wind stirring yet."

"It's coming though," the other rejoined. "I can smell it."

"You've a better nose than I have then," said Mr Marline with a laugh;
but, he had hardly got out the words, when there came a terrific crash
of thunder right overhead, sounding so fearfully near and grand and
awful, that it seemed as if the roof of heaven had broken in!

I jumped up at once from my seat and went towards the binnacle, where
Jackson and Mr Marline were standing; for, although I wasn't actually
afraid of the thunder, still one likes to be by the side of some one
else when it peals out so dreadfully, the sense of companionship
lessening the fear of da