y of the ship,
or our lives," exclaimed Stubbs, in a tone of alarm. "You don't know
what trick he'll play you if you do. Let such gentry alone, say I."

We all laughed at the second mate's earnestness, though I cannot say
that all the rest of those present disbelieved in the existence of the
condemned _Dutchman_. The state of the atmosphere, the strange, wild,
awful look of the ocean, prepared our minds for the appearance of
anything supernatural. The captain told me that I looked ill and tired
from having been on deck so many hours, and insisted on my turning in,
which I at length unwillingly did.

In spite of the upheaving motion of the ship, and the peculiar sensation
as she rushed down the watery declivity into the deep valley between the
seas, I fell asleep. The creaking of the bulkheads, the whistling of
the wind in the rigging, the roaring of the seas, and their constant
dash against the sides, were never out of my ears, and oftentimes I
fancied that I was on deck witnessing the tumult of the ocean--now that
the _Flying Dutchman_ was in sight, now that our own good ship was
sinking down overwhelmed by the raging seas.

"Mr Stubbs wants you on deck, sir; she's in sight, sir, he says, she's
in sight," I heard a voice say, while I felt my elbow shaken. The
speaker was Jerry Nott, our cabin-boy. I slipped on my clothes,
scarcely knowing what I was about.

"What o'clock is it?" I asked. "Gone two bells in the morning watch,"
he answered. I sprang on deck. The dawn had broke. The wind blew as
hard as ever. The sky and sea were of a leaden grey hue, the only spots
of white were the foaming crests of the seas and our closely-reefed
foretop sails. "There, there! Do you see her now?" asked Stubbs,
pointing ahead. As we rose to the top of a giant sea I could just
discover in the far distance, dimly seen amid the driving spray, the
masts of a ship, with more canvas set than I should have supposed would
have been shown to such a gale. While I was looking I saw another ship
not far beyond the first. We were clearly nearing them.

"What do you think of that?" asked Stubbs.

"That there are two ships making very bad weather of it, Mr Stubbs,"
answered the captain, who at that moment had come on deck. He took a
look through his glass.

"She is a large ship--a line-of-battle ship, I suspect," he observed.

"Looks like one," said Stubbs. "She'll look like something else
by-and-by."

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