lence!" came in deep tones from the doorway, and before the first
paralysis of the dread alarm had time to become a panic, the captain's
irresistible voice caught their attention. He held a lantern aloft
and, after just one shriek of terror, the women, mostly prostrate on
the floor, turned to listen, while the men braced themselves to conquer
their weakness.

"Silence!" said the captain, steadying himself between the lintels of
the door, while the great steamer plunged, rolled, and pitched, like a
thing gone mad. "The ship has been struck by lightning, and the lights
put out. We are in the midst of a cloud charged with electricity, and
must stand the darkness for a little. The fire was discovered at once,
and will soon be subdued. If we can stand a few seconds of this we
will be safe. Keep where you are, and hug the floor, It's the safest
place, now."

Above the roar of the storm his voice sounded calm and steady, the only
familiar thing in this swift upheaval. Poor little Andy, who had been
clinging by tail and claws to his perch, not even dropping the
handglass, seemed to think help had come with the man he had grown very
fond of by this, so he quickly scrambled down and fled to the big
pocket of Captain Hosmer's reefer, a movement almost unnoted by the man
in his preoccupation. For, practised in self-control as he was, our
brave captain knew this was a crucial instant and it needed all his
reserve strength to meet it.

They were wrapped in dangers, and all the elements, except earth, were
warring against them. The cyclone on the Indian Ocean is a terrible
destroyer, and the best-built vessel stands little chance of escape
when meeting its fury.

The group within the radius of his lantern's light were obedient,
though, and he had a swift vision of Carnegie gently steadying Faith
into a seat, and another less welcome one of Allyne bracing Hope, who
was on her knees against the wall.

It was but instantaneous, like every change of that eventful night.
The next, he had handed the lantern to Mr. Malcolm with a word of
suggestion, and was off to other duties. Crash after crash showed how
the good ship was yielding to the tempest's fury; and the wild tramp of
excited feet outside, and above, made the huddled women shudder in face
of the desperate fear that a fire upon the sea always awakens. But it
had to be borne in inaction, for to move about in this furious pitching
and swaying was utterly impossible to