t flew along faster
than before. The men were now sitting up in the bottom of the boat; they
knew that the battle with the storm had as yet scarcely begun, and that
when the sea once got up they would have a terrible time of it. In an
ordinary ship's-boat the prospect would have been absolutely hopeless; but
the Norwegian pilot-boats--whose model the captain had pretty closely
followed--are able successfully to ride out the heaviest gale in the North
Sea, and the mate and the two apprentices, the latter of whom had often
heard from Captain Pinder, with whom the matter was a pet hobby, of the
wonderful power of these craft in a gale, entertained a strong hope that
she would live through whatever might come. As the sea rose, a small
portion of the foresail was loosed, then more was freed, until the whole
of the little sail was drawing, and the speed with which it dragged the
boat along saved her from being swamped by the following waves. But in
another hour the water no longer ran in waves, it was broken up in a
confused and tumultuous sea; the greater part of the sail was again bound
up, for there was no longer the same risk of being swamped, and it was
necessary to moderate the boat's speed in such a tumult of water.

"What makes it like this?" Stephen shouted.

"The circular motion of the wind," the mate replied in a similar tone of
voice. "I dare say we have made two or three circles already."

"There is a compass in the locker behind you, sir."

The mate nodded.

"That may be useful when the storm is over, but would not help us now, and
might get broken."

That Stephen could quite understand, for the motions of the boat were so
sudden and unexpected that the crew often grasped at the thwarts and
gunwale, fearing they would be thrown right out of her. At one moment a
wave seemed to rise underneath her, and almost chuck her into the air,
then she would sink between two masses of water, that looked as if they
would tumble over and fill her, then she would dash head-forward at a wave
that rose suddenly in front of her. For a time it seemed to all on board
as if her destruction was imminent, but as the buoyant little craft
struggled bravely on,--shipping no more water than one man with the bailer
could free her of as fast as it came aboard, in the shape of spray,--they
began to breathe again more freely.

It was now nine hours since the gale had burst upon them, and there were
no signs of an abatement, when, as the