"

The men received the order with visible trepidation, and were none too
ready to execute it; but at length Dyer, who was certainly not lacking
in courage, snatched a lantern from one of the men, threw the coils of
the main topgallant brace off the pin, bent the lantern to the end of
it, and climbing into the mizen rigging, lowered it over the side until
it hung close to the surface of the water. But there was nothing to be
seen; and it was now noticed that the exceedingly offensive odour which
had recently pervaded the ship was no longer perceptible, apart from
that which emanated from the severed tentacle, which was promptly hove
overboard. Then the hands were mustered and the roll called, when it
was found that two of the crew were missing, and there could no longer
be a shadow of doubt that two of the ship's company had actually been
dragged off the deck and drowned, if not devoured by the creature!

But the crew of the _Nonsuch_ were not allowed much time wherein to
dwell upon this amazing tragedy, for scarcely had the boatswain been
restored to his senses and conveyed below to his hammock to recover from
the shock of his terrible adventure, when a low, weird, moaning sound
suddenly became audible in the air all about the ship, the canvas of the
close-reefed topsails, which had been flapping monotonously with the
heave and roll of the ship, shivered and slatted violently for a moment,
and a gust of hot wind from the north-west swept wailing over the ship
and was gone. Then with equal suddenness a flash of vivid lightning
rent the sky low down in the northern board, and presently, coincidently
with the muttered booming of distant thunder, another blast of hot wind
struck the ship and swept away to the southward in the wake of the
first. Then, almost before the sound of the second blast had died away
in the distance, there again arose those strange moaning and wailing
sounds in the air, seemingly right overhead, louder and more prolonged
this time, and accompanied by queer shuddering rustlings of the topsails
and momentary scufflings of conflicting draughts of air about the decks.
These conflicting draughts finally resolved themselves into a series of
fitful gusts from the northward, which happily lasted long enough to
enable her crew to get the _Nonsuch's_ bows round, pointing to the
southward, and then, with a screaming roar, the gale rushed down upon
the ship, out from due north, and amid the yelling and pipi