e in the very
center of the cyclone, and the strangely tossed sea was accounted
for.

The motion of the ship was extraordinary. Sometimes she was thrown
on one side, sometimes on the other. Mountains of water seemed to
rise suddenly beside her, and tumbled in great green masses over
the bulwarks. So wild and sudden were her movements that even the
oldest sailors were unable to keep their feet; and all clung on to
shrouds, or belaying pins. Will and Hans had lashed themselves by
the slack of a rope to the bulwarks, close to each other, and there
clung on; sometimes half drowned by the waves, which poured in
above them; sometimes torn from their feet by the rush of green
water, as the ship plunged, head foremost, into a wave, or shipped
one over her poop.

Presently there was a crash that sounded even above the fury of the
gale--the fore top-mast had gone, at the cap. The axes were again
called into requisition, for a blow from the floating spar would
have instantly stove in the side. While engaged upon this, the
captain called two of the men with axes aft. These were set to work
to chop through the shrouds of the mizzen and, in a minute later,
the mast snapped asunder on the level of the deck, and went over
the side with a crash, carrying away several feet of the bulwark.
This act was necessitated by the loss of the fore top-mast, as the
pressure of the wind upon the mizzen would have brought her head
up, and laid her broadside to the gale.

The motion of the vessel was now considerably easier, and there was
no longer any difficulty in keeping her dead before the wind. She
was now describing much larger circles in her course, showing that
she was farther removed from the center of the cyclone. After five
or six hours, the extreme violence of the wind somewhat abated, and
it seemed to settle down into a heavy gale.

For two days the vessel ran before it. She had made a good deal of
water, from the opening of the seams by straining, and the pumps
were kept going. They were, they found, able to prevent the water
from gaining upon them; and all felt that they should weather the
tempest, provided that they were not dashed upon any of the islands
in which this portion of the ocean abounds.

The crew had had no regular meals, since the gale began; for the
caboose had been broken up, and washed overboard, soon after the
commencement of the storm; and they had been obliged to be content
with biscuits. There was little to