the dry warm
comfort of the cabin, lighted up with the brilliant rays of its single
handsome swinging-lamp, its carpeted floor and well-cushioned lockers,
was agreeable in the extreme; and the sound of the gale, as it roared
overhead and shrieked through the rigging, the patter and drip of the
rain on the deck, and the occasional heavy "swish" of the drenching
spray-showers, served but to increase the feeling of comfort which we
enjoyed. We spent some time, after the table was cleared, in consulting
the chart, interspersed with frequent references to the book of sailing
directions, and when we tired of these a book apiece served to wile away
the time until midnight, when Smellie had to turn out once more and take
charge of the deck. As the eight strokes upon the bell proclaimed the
expiration of the first watch, we donned our oilskins and repaired to
the deck in company.

The wind had been steadily increasing from the commencement of the gale,
and was now blowing so heavily that every time the "Vigilant" rose upon
the crest of a sea she careened almost gunwale-to, even with the scanty
shred of canvas under which she was hove-to. The sea, moreover, had
increased with as great rapidity as the wind, and was now running
tremendously high, breaking from time to time in a manner which made me
somewhat uneasy. Still, the little craft was behaving beautifully and
making excellent weather of it; not a drop of anything heavier than
spray having come on board her so far. The night was as dark as a
wolf's mouth, there being no moon, and the sky remaining obscured by an
impenetrable canopy of heavy black cloud-vapour which was darkest about
the horizon, against which the phosphorescent wave-crests reared
themselves portentously in startling relief. The intense darkness was
my greatest source of anxiety, for we were directly in the track of
outward-bound ships, and the wind was blowing from a quarter which,
while not exactly fair, was sufficiently free to enable them to keep
going, and that too at a speed which would send a ship of any size right
over us almost without her crew knowing anything about it. We had, of
course, our lights in their places, and brightly burning; but we were so
frequently hidden in the trough of the sea that a very bright lookout
would be needed to discover us in time to avoid a collision, which was
then, as it is now, the thing I most dread at sea--excepting fire. It
seems needless to say that a br