s hidden under the forks of the branches
of the giant eucalyptus; the Sirocco, the Mistral, the Hurricane, the
dry winds, the inundating and diluvian winds, the torrid winds, which
scatter dust from the plains of Brazil upon the streets of Genoa, which
both obey and revolt against diurnal rotation, and of which Herrara
said, "_Malo viento torna contra el sol_;" those winds which hunt in
couples, conspiring mischief, the one undoing the work of the other; and
those old winds which assailed Columbus on the coast of Veragua, and
which during forty days, from the 21st of October to the 28th of
November 1520, delayed and nearly frustrated Magellan's approach to the
Pacific; and those which dismasted the Armada and confounded Philip II.
Others, too, there are, of the names of which there is no end. The
winds, for instance, which carry showers of frogs and locusts, and drive
before them clouds of living things across the ocean; those which blow
in what are called "Wind-leaps," and whose function is to destroy ships
at sea; those which at a single blast throw the cargo out of trim, and
compel the vessel to continue her course half broadside over; the winds
which construct the circum-cumuli; the winds which mass together the
circum-strati; the dark heavy winds swelled with rains; the winds of the
hailstorms; the fever winds, whose approach sets the salt springs and
sulphur springs of Calabria boiling; those which give a glittering
appearance to the fur of African panthers, prowling among the bushes of
Cape Ferro; those which come shaking from the cloud, like the tongue of
a trigonocephal, the terrible forked lightning; and those which bring
whirlwinds of black snow. Such is the legion of winds.

The Douvres rock heard their distant tramp at the moment when Gilliatt
was constructing his breakwater.

As we have said, the wind means the combination of all the winds of the
earth.

V

GILLIATT'S ALTERNATIVES

The mysterious forces had chosen their time well.

Chance, if chance exists, is sometimes far-seeing.

While the sloop had been anchored in the little creek of "The Man Rock,"
and as long as the machinery had been prisoned in the wreck, Gilliatt's
position had been impregnable. The sloop was in safety; the machinery
sheltered. The Douvres, which held the hull of the Durande fast,
condemned it to slow destruction, but protected it against unexpected
accidents. In any event, one resource had remained to him. If the