ily lengthening intervals as the storm passed away to the
southward, the thunder died down to a distant booming and rumbling, and
finally ceased altogether in about an hour and a half from the
commencement of the outbreak, while the lightning became a harmless,
fitful quivering of vari-coloured light along the southern horizon.

But we were now in a most awkward predicament; a predicament that might
easily become disastrous should it come on to blow, as was by no means
impossible. For not only had three men been killed outright and eight
more or less seriously injured by that terrible lightning-stroke, but
our sails were gone, our foremast destroyed, and our rigging so badly
injured that our main and mizzen-masts stood practically unsupported;
while we had too much reason to fear that the masts and spars themselves
were so seriously weakened by the play of the flames upon them as to
have become of little or no use to us. And, to crown all, it was now so
pitch-dark that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain
the full extent of our disaster until daylight. Our situation, however,
was too critical to admit of our waiting until then; it was of vital
importance that immediate steps should be taken to secure what had been
left to us; and, with this object, the carpenter and boatswain procured
lanterns with which they proceeded aloft to make a critical examination
into the condition of the spars and rigging. They were thus engaged
when the doctor, who had been down in the forecastle, attending to the
hurts of the wounded men, appeared on deck, and, catching sight of
Captain Chesney and myself standing together under the break of the
poop, beckoned us to follow him into his cabin.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MANILLA.

"I will only detain you a moment, gentlemen," said the medico, as he
closed the cabin door behind us; "but I wanted to speak to you strictly
in private; since, if overheard, what I have to say might possibly
produce a panic. The fact is that I am afraid we are not yet aware of
the full extent of the disaster that has happened to us. I have been
down in the forecastle attending to the wounded men; and I had no sooner
entered the place than I noticed a faint smell as of burning; but I
attached no importance to it at the moment, believing that it arose from
the fire on deck. But, instead of passing away, as it ought to have
done, with the extinguishment of the fire, it has p