st danger of chafe. And the same was done in both of the
boats, for we could not put our trust in the painters, besides which they
had not sufficient length to secure safe and easy riding.

Now by this time we had the canvas nailed down to the gunnels around our
boat, after which we spread the boat-cover over it, lacing it down to the
brass studs beneath the gunnel. And so we had all the boat covered in,
save a place in the stern where a man might stand to wield the steering
oar, for the boats were double bowed. And in each boat we made the same
preparation, lashing all movable articles, and preparing to meet so great
a storm as might well fill the heart with terror; for the sky cried out
to us that it would be no light wind, and further, the great swell from
the South grew more huge with every hour that passed; though as yet it
was without virulence, being slow and oily and black against the redness
of the sky.

Presently we were ready, and had cast over the bundle of oars and the
mast, which was to serve as our sea anchor, and so we lay waiting. It was
at this time that the bo'sun called over to Josh certain advice with
regard to that which lay before us. And after that the two of them
sculled the boats a little apart; for there might be a danger of their
being dashed together by the first violence of the storm.

And so came a time of waiting, with Josh and the bo'sun each of them at
the steering oars, and the rest of us stowed away under the coverings.
From where I crouched near the bo'sun, I had sight of Josh away upon our
port side: he was standing up black as a shape of night against the
mighty redness, when the boat came to the foamless crowns of the swells,
and then gone from sight in the hollows between.

Now midday had come and gone, and we had made shift to eat so good a
meal as our appetites would allow; for we had no knowledge how long it
might be ere we should have chance of another, if, indeed, we had ever
need to think more of such. And then, in the middle part of the
afternoon, we heard the first cryings of the storm--a far-distant
moaning, rising and falling most solemnly.

Presently, all the Southern part of the horizon so high up, maybe, as
some seven to ten degrees, was blotted out by a great black wall of
cloud, over which the red glare came down upon the great swells as though
from the light of some vast and unseen fire. It was about this time, I
observed that the sun had the appearance of a g