e on us
in a jiffey. Down with the helm sharp, don't you hear?" he called out a
second time to the helmsmen.

Captain Miles, quite startled now, looked round, and seeing the great
wave of water, now quite close, borne before the coming wind, repeated
the order to put down the helm more sharply still, adding also to the
watch on duty:

"Cast-off the topsail sheets and let everything go by the run!"

Whether Davis heard the order to let the ship's head fall off and
wilfully disobeyed it, on account of its coming from Jackson, whom he
hated, or whether he was paralysed with terror at the approach of this
new danger, after our having passed through all the perils of the
cyclone, no one could say; but he not only did not turn the spokes of
the wheel himself, but he absolutely prevented the other man from doing
so.

Seeing the vessel did not answer the helm, the captain and Jackson
together darted aft, dragging away Davis and fiercely jamming the wheel
down as hard as they could.

The movement, however, came too late.

Before the _Josephine's_ bows could pay off, a terrific blast of wind,
worse than anything that had yet assailed her, struck her sideways.
Over she was borne to leeward, dipping and dipping until her yard-arms;
and then, the tops of her masts, touching the water, becoming gradually
immersed as the ship canted.

At the same moment, too, with a loud double report, the foresail and
main-topsail blew out of the bolt-ropes, floating away in the distance.
But this relief, great as it was, did not right the ship, for the huge
white wave, following the gust, forced her over still more on her side;
and, in less time than I have taken to tell of the occurrence, the
_Josephine_ was on her beam-ends and every soul on board struggling in
the water for dear life.

"Hole on, Mass' Tom, hole on!" I heard Jake's voice cry somewhere, as I
sank beneath the rocking surges that were in an instant cresting over
the poop. "Hole on, Mass' Tom, hole on!"

I tried to battle with the sea, but it bore me down, and down, and down.

And then--I felt I was drowning!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

IN DIRE PERIL.

Jake's voice seemed ever so far away in the distance, and there was a
confused sort of humming, buzzing noise in my ears; while some heavy
weight on the top of my head appeared to be pressing me down, although I
struggled frantically to free myself.

It was all in vain, though.

I was whirled round and round in an ed