spoke not; and no sounds but the
loud words of command, the noise of men running to and fro over head,
and the cries of King, interfered with the sovereignty of the thunder,
and whistling of the impetuous wind.

Dripping with rain, and out of breath, anxious care sitting on his
whitened lips to watch and thwart each word he would speak with
firmness, D---- hastened down the main companion and addressed himself
to R----.

"My Lord," he said, "the pilots begin to differ: one prays the other to
put back, who persists in beating to windward. The gale increases, and
the land is not two miles from our lee. What had better be done, my
Lord?"

"It is impossible for me to interpose my authority. The safety of the
vessel is in the hands of the two pilots; and what they say must be
obeyed," replied R----.

"But, my Lord, they are at variance," said D----, impressively. "I do
not know the coast, and cannot judge for myself which one is in the
right."

R---- made no answer, but, calling for a glazed coat and cap, went,
accompanied by P----, on deck. Knowing that on all such occasions as
the present, the less crowded the decks are, the more effectually all
orders can be carried out, I lay down on the sofa, and noted all that
was going forward. Worn in nerve and wearied by the distracting uproar
of the elements, and flapping sails, I fell at last into a pleasant mood
of thought, and, lost to everything around me, did not perceive that
King, by some means or the other, had risen from his berth and was in
the cabin, until I heard him groan. Kneeling on the floor, and with his
face buried on the sofa opposite to the one on which I was reclining,
the poor fellow had placed one of the pillows on the side of the sofa,
and was pressing his stomach against it.

"Why, King!" I exclaimed, starting from my lethargy, "What has brought
you here? You should not have left your bed;" but he did not appear to
understand, or hear me. Knowing that he had taken calomel, I took a
blanket and threw it over him lest he should catch cold, for the wind
passed in draughts through the cabin, as it would rush through a funnel.
He looked up, and said,

"Oh! Sir--is it you? Do I disturb you, Sir?"

"No," I replied, "it only disturbs me to see you so ill."

"Thank you, Sir, thank you," he said, and strove to smile; but his
complaint, which appeared to attack him with great anguish at intervals
of a few minutes, altered the expression of his countenance