irst one way and then another; but while he
was aloft, clinging to the boat's masthead, and watching the stranger in
the hope of being able to make some further discovery concerning her,
her people started to clew up and furl her royals, which circumstance
Simpson duly reported. It served as a hint to us in the gig, for if the
stranger had detected symptoms that her royals would presently be too
much for her, it was high time for us to look after ourselves; and we
accordingly proceeded forthwith to close-reef our lug, and otherwise
make such preparations as were possible to enable us effectively to meet
the onslaught of the threatened squall.

CHAPTER FOUR.

AT THE MERCY OF WIND AND SEA.

That a squall was indeed brewing was by this time perfectly evident; for
while we had been getting our supper the cloud which had made its
appearance on the western horizon had rapidly risen, and now hung, an
enormous lowering mass of livid purple vapour, in the western heavens,
covering an arc of the horizon of fully a hundred degrees, completely
hiding the setting sun, and towering aloft until its upper edge was
nearly overhead. Yet so far there was not a breath of wind, and the
surface of the sea remained an unbroken, polished mirror, perfectly
reflecting the hues of the overhanging cloud to the westward and the
deep rich azure of the sky away down toward the east; and when Simpson
again climbed the boat's mast to take a final look at the stranger, he
reported her naked mastheads as standing up black, sharp, and motionless
against the soft primrose tones of the northern sky.

Some ten minutes later, and just as the brief twilight of that region
had begun to veil the scene, we saw a faint glimmer of lightning in the
heart of the now slowly advancing cloud, and a few seconds after the low
mutter of thunder reached our ears. And before the rumble of this had
died away there suddenly darted from the bosom of the cloud a long,
vivid, baleful, sun-bright flash that seemed to strike into the sea
within a quarter of a mile of us, immediately followed by so stupendous
a crash that it caused the very timbers of our boat to vibrate and
tremble--or so I verily believed. And as though that flash had been a
signal, the great cloud seemed suddenly to burst apart, and the next
moment we were enveloped in a very deluge of rain, which fairly roared
as it threshed the surface of the sea all round us.

"The bread! the bread!" I shouted.