r decks, in
numberless little glittering cascades. Every hue of the heavens, every
sound of the element, and each dusky and anxious countenance that was
visible, helped to proclaim the intense interest of the moment. It was in
this brief interval of expectation, and inactivity, that the mates again
approached their Commander.

"It is an awful night, Captain Wilder!" said Earing presuming on his rank
to be the first of the two to speak.

"I have known far less notice given of a shift of wind," was the steady
answer.

"We have had time to gather in our kites, 'tis true, sir; but there are
signs and warnings, that come with this change, at which the oldest seaman
has reason to take heed!"

"Yes," continued Nighthead, in a voice that sounded hoarse and powerful,
even amid the fearful accessories of that scene; "yes, it is no trifling
commission that can call people, that I shall not name, out upon the water
in such a night as this. It was in just such weather that I saw the
'Vesuvius' ketch go to a place so deep, that her own mortar would not have
bein able to have sent a bomb into the open air, had hands and fire been
there fit to let it off!"

"Ay; and it was in such a time that the Greenlandman was cast upon the
Orkneys, in as flat a calm as ever lay on the sea."

"Gentlemen," said Wilder, with a peculiar and perhaps an ironical emphasis
on the word, "what is it you would have? There is not a breath of air
stirring, and the ship is naked to her topsails!"

It would have been difficult for either of the two malcontents to have
given a very satisfactory answer to this question. Both were secretly
goaded by mysterious and superstitious apprehensions, that were powerfully
aided by the more real and intelligible aspect of the night; but neither
had so far for gotten his manhood, and his professional pride, as to lay
bare the full extent of his own weakness, at a moment when he was liable
to be called upon for the exhibition of qualities of a far more positive
and determined character. Still, the feeling that was uppermost betrayed
itself in the reply of Earing, though in an indirect and covert manner.

"Yes, the vessel is snug enough now," he said, "though eye-sight has shown
us all it is no easy matter to drive a freighted ship though the water as
fast as one of your flying craft can go, aboard of which no man can say,
who stands at the helm, by what compass she steers, or what is her
draught!"

"Ay," resumed Nigh