"I really think, captain, that I should send some of them down
below at once. If a flash of lightning were to strike the mast, it
would probably go down the shrouds harmlessly, but might do
frightful damage among the men, crowded as they are up here; or it
might blind some of them. Besides, the weight forward is no
trifle."

"I think that you are right, sir," and, raising his voice, the
captain shouted:

"All hands below except the four men told off. Go down by the
companion."

"Would you mind their stopping in the saloon, sir? It would make
her more lively than if they all went down into the fo'castle."

"Certainly not, captain;" and accordingly the men were ordered to
remain in the saloon.

"You can light your pipes there, my lads," Frank said, as they went
down, "and make yourselves as comfortable as you can."

The last man had scarcely disappeared when the captain said:

"Look there, Major Mallett," and looking up Frank saw a ball of
phosphorescent light, some eighteen inches in diameter, upon the
masthead.

"Plenty of electricity about," he said, cheerfully. "If they are
all as harmless as that it won't hurt us."

But as he ceased speaking there was a crash of thunder overhead
that made the whole vessel quiver, and at the same instant a flash
of lightning, so vivid, that for a minute or two Frank felt
absolutely blinded. Without a moment's intermission, flash followed
flash, while the crashes of thunder were incessant.

"I think that plan of yours has saved the ship, sir," the captain
said, when, after five minutes, the lightning ceased as suddenly as
it had begun. "I am sure that a score of those flashes struck the
mast, and yet no damage has been done to it, so far as I could see
by the last flash. Are you all right there, Purvis?"

"All right," the mate replied. "Scared a bit, I fancy. I know I am
myself, but none the worse for it."

"It is coming now, sir," the captain said. "Listen."

Frank could hear a low moaning noise, rapidly growing louder, and
then he saw a white line on the water coming along with
extraordinary velocity.

"Hard down with the helm, Perry," the captain said.

"Hard down it is, sir."

"Hold on all!" the captain shouted.

A few seconds later the gale struck them. The yacht shook as if in
a collision, and heeled over till the water was half up her deck.
Then the weight of her lead ballast told, and as the pressure on
the mizzen did its work, she gradually came up