inaction and surrounded by every
circumstance of appalling tumult and darkness and horror, is about as
unnerving a thing as can find place in any man's experience, and it was
long before the recollection of it passed from my mind.

Assuredly, too, I shall never forget the scene that greeted my first
appearance on deck, after the subsidence of the storm.

The steamer, which before, though lacking the spick-and-span smartness
of a crack liner, was, for a cargo boat, wonderfully clean and
ship-shape, now had all the appearance of a wreck. Everything movable
on her decks had been swept away. Three out of her four boats were
gone, and the green seas came pouring over the main deck, to run off
through a great breach in her bulwarks. Crates of poultry and a live
sheep alike had disappeared, and she wore the aspect of a woe-begone
hulk. However, we had weathered the gale, and the engines had stood out
nobly.

The captain and chief mate, too, looked hardly the same men. The former
was pale and sallow, and the latter, though still broad, could no longer
be described as red. The long spell of sleeplessness and terrible
anxiety had told upon them, and the eyes of both were dull and opaque.
I did not address them, as they were busily engaged in "shooting the
sun," it being the first time that luminary had been available for the
purpose since the beginning of the gale.

"Running down the Portuguese coast, and a sight nearer in than we ought
to be," said the captain, joining me. "Well, Mr Holt, you've had a new
experience, and I'm not sure I haven't myself, for I can hardly call to
mind a worse blow, especially with such a cargo, and loaded down as we
are. The boat won't rise properly, you see--hasn't a fair chance.
Well, we shan't get any more of it, unless we come in for a dusting off
the Cape coast."

We ran into lovely weather--day after day of cloudless skies and glassy
seas; but the heat on the line was something to remember, and we had
none of the luxuries of a first-class passenger ship--no long drinks or
iced lager, or cool salads and oranges. Salt provisions and ship
biscuit and black tea, with a tot of grog before turning in, constituted
our luxurious fare, and the heat had brought out innumerable
cockroaches, which did their level best to contribute towards its
seasoning. But there were compensations. For instance, I had made up
my mind to leave all care and anxiety behind, to throw it off utterly,
and tru