came down to the stoke-hold the other day?"

Before Bill could reply there was a flash of lightning, followed by a
sharp clap of thunder. The sail-cloths began to flap ominously. On
their grimy faces the two stokers felt drops of rain.

"We're in for it!" cried Bill. "Did ye see 'em storm-clouds?"

There was another glare, more vivid than the first, followed almost
immediately by a report that left no doubt of the violence of the storm
which was fast approaching. The flash revealed a mass of low-lying
clouds, swollen with moisture to the bursting point, around which danced
lurid green flames. The wind was rising rapidly with a sinister moan.
The sea, while still smooth, was seething and covered with foam like
water boiling.

"It's goin' to be a corker!" shouted Bill. "Let's get in before it
breaks."

Without waiting to see if Armitage was following him, he ran back to the
ventilator up which both men had climbed, and disappeared.

CHAPTER VIII.

Below on the promenade-deck all was excitement and confusion. The peal
of thunder had spread consternation among the women, and there was a
general stampede for shelter.

The first rush of wind played terrible havoc with the bunting. The
floral decorations were scattered in all directions. Part of the canvas
awning was torn down. Chairs, tables, and glasses crashed to the deck.
Amid the uproar were heard the harsh commands of the ship's officers,
and the running here and there of sailors, as they hastened to execute
orders. The wind squall died away as quickly as it had come, and for a
brief spell the turmoil was succeeded by an unnatural quiet. Some of the
passengers, inexperienced in weather signs, thought the worst was over,
but the wiseacres shook their heads. It was the lull before the
onrushing storm.

Grace and Mrs. Stuart had fled inside at the first alarm, and they both
stood at the saloon entrance, peering nervously into the darkness
beyond the rail, anxiously questioning Professor Hanson and Count von
Hatzfeld, who tried to reassure them. The Honorable Percy Fitzhugh, his
face white and visibly nervous, was so excited that he stuck his monocle
in the wrong eye.

"I don't think it will amount to much," asserted the professor, in his
pompous, authoritative way.

The words were barely spoken when he was rudely contradicted. Another
blinding flash rent the heavens, revealing great masses of
forbidding-looking clouds scudding across the sky and hangin