another and another, fiercer and
fiercer still. The sea, although smooth, at last appeared white as a
sheet with foam, as the typhoon swept along in its impetuous career; it
burst upon the vessel, which bowed down to her gunnel and there
remained; in a quarter of an hour the hurricane had passed over, and the
vessel was relieved, but the sea had risen, and the wind was strong. In
another hour the blast again came, more wild, more furious than the
first, the waves were dashed into their faces, torrents of rain
descended, the ship was thrown on her beam ends, and thus remained till
the wild blast had passed away, to sweep destruction far beyond them,
leaving behind it a tumultuous angry sea.

"It is nearly over, I believe, sir," said Krantz. "It is clearing up a
little to windward."

"We have had the worst of it, I believe," said Philip.

"No! there is worse to come," said a low voice near to Philip. It was
Schriften who spoke.

"A vessel to windward scudding before the gale," cried Krantz.

Philip looked to windward, and in the spot where the horizon was
clearest, he saw a vessel under topsails and foresail, standing right
down. "She is a large vessel; bring me my glass." The telescope was
brought from the cabin, but before Philip could use it, a haze had again
gathered up to windward, and the vessel was not to be seen.

"Thick again," observed Philip, as he shut in his telescope; "we must
look out for that vessel, that she does not run too close to us."

"She has seen us, no doubt, sir," said Krantz.

After a few minutes the typhoon again raged, and the atmosphere was of a
murky gloom. It seemed as if some heavy fog had been hurled along by
the furious wind; nothing was to be distinguished except the white foam
of the sea, and that not the distance of half a cable's length, where it
was lost in one dark grey mist. The storm-stay-sail, yielding to the
force of the wind, was rent into strips and flogged and cracked with a
noise even louder than the gale. The furious blast again blew over, and
the mist cleared up a little.

"Ship on the weather beam close aboard of us," cried one of the men.

Krantz and Philip sprang upon the gunwale, and beheld the large ship
bearing right down upon them, not three cables' length distant.

"Helm up! she does not see us, and she will be aboard of us!" cried
Philip. "Helm up, I say, hard up, quick!"

The helm was put up, as the men, perceiving their imminent danger,