ral ribs by falling from aloft during a
squall. The injured man, as soon as he was able, took Ralph's place in
the cabin.

As they approached the African coast, alternate fogs and calms delayed
their progress somewhat. The fogs were a protection from prying
vessels, but the calms proved to be an unmitigated nuisance.

The ocean would be like shining glass beneath a vertical shower of the
sun's rays that, at times, rendered the deck almost unendurable.
Awnings were stretched and for hours and even days the Wanderer would
lie almost motionless, except for the impalpable swell from which the
bosom of the sea is never entirely free.

One dull, damp morning, when the decks were slippery with moisture and
a curtain of mist veiled everything beyond a hundred yards, Ralph, who
was in the foretop on the lookout, fancied that he detected a sound
somewhat different from the usual noises surrounding a vessel even in a
calm.

They were nearing the land, as the captain's last reckoning showed, yet
soundings taken not half an hour previous, had discovered no bottom at
a depth of several hundred feet. Ralph called to a sailor below to ask
the second mate to come forward.

"Well, what now, Granger?" demanded Duff from the main deck.

Ralph had hardly explained, before the mate sprang up the rigging to
the lad's side. The trained ear of the officer instantly divined what
might be the matter.

"Down with you, Ralph," said he, hurrying to the deck himself. "Pipe
up all hands and shorten sail!" he shouted to the boatswain, then
emerging from the forecastle. "Lively now!"

The schooner was under full canvas, with the purpose of making the most
of what little air might be stirring. A moment before, the most
profound repose was reigning, but with the shrill call that instantly
rang out, all was changed to a scene of the most intense activity.

Men came tumbling up to join the watch on deck in lowering two of the
jibs, and reefing a third, while the great fore and aft sails were
reduced to less than half their size in a twinkling.

Orders came sharp and fast, three seamen in each top were hastily
lowering and lashing the topsails, when the sound heard by Ralph, and
which had rapidly increased to a sputtering roar, was split as it were
by a crash of thunder. The fog melted away like a dissolving dream,
showing beyond the burst of sunlight, a coppery cloud that swept the
ocean to windward, driving before it a line of hissing f