ily the storm had begun to abate before this accident happened. Had
it occurred during the height of the gale, the result might have been
most disastrous to the undertaking at the Bell Rock.

Having made all fast, an attempt was made to kindle the galley fire and
cook some food.

"Wot are we to 'ave, steward?" enquired Joe Dumsby, in a feeble voice.

"Plumduff, my boy, so cheer up," replied the steward, who was busy with
the charming ingredients of a suet pudding, which was the only dish to
be attempted, owing to the ease with which it could be both cooked and
served up.

Accordingly, the suet pudding was made; the men began to eat; the gale
began to "take off", as seaman express it; and, although things were
still very far removed from a state of comfort, they began to be more
endurable; health began to return to the sick, and hope to those who had
previously given way to despair.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

BELL ROCK BILLOWS--AN UNEXPECTED VISIT--A DISASTER AND A RESCUE.

It is pleasant, it is profoundly enjoyable, to sit on the margin of the
sea during the dead calm that not unfrequently succeeds a wild storm,
and watch the gentle undulations of the glass-like surface, which the
very gulls seem to be disinclined to ruffle with their wings as they
descend to hover above their own reflected images.

It is pleasant to watch this from the shore, where the waves fall in low
murmuring ripples, or from the ship's deck, far out upon the sea, where
there is no sound of water save the laving of the vessel's bow as she
rises and sinks in the broad-backed swell; but there is something more
than pleasant, there is, something deeply and peculiarly interesting, in
the same scene when viewed from such a position as the Bell Rock; for
there, owing to the position of the rock and the depth of water around
it, the observer beholds, at the same moment, the presence, as it were,
of storm and calm.

The largest waves there are seen immediately after a storm has passed
away, not during its continuance, no matter how furious the gale may
have been, for the rushing wind has a tendency to blow down the waves,
so to speak, and prevent their rising to their utmost height. It is
when the storm is over that the swell rises; but as this swell appears
only like large undulations, it does not impress the beholder with its
magnitude until it draws near to the rock and begins to feel the
checking influence of the bottom of the sea. The upper pa