I know we're going to sink!" cried the nervous passenger. "Do
you think it will be soon, captain?"

"What soon?" asked the commander, who was too busy to pay much
attention to Mr. Tarbill. "Will we sink soon?"

"Sink? We're not going to sink at all if I can help it! This is no
worse than lots of storms. You had better go to your cabin and lie
down."

"Oh, I wouldn't dare to! The ship might sink while I was there. I
know we'll get caught in a whirlpool, or in a waterspout, or some
other dreadful thing! This is terrible! Awful! Fearful!"

The wind was increasing, and great waves dashed over the _Eagle's_
bow.

"It's bad luck to have such a storm-croaker as that aboard,"
murmured one of the sailors. "He's a regular Jonah!"

"I wish he'd go below," muttered the captain, and Bob overheard
him. "He's frightening every one up here, and we're going to have
a hard enough time as it is without a nervous man on deck."

Bob, though he was frightened at the storm, which was constantly
growing worse, determined to stick it out. He wanted to see what
would happen. But he saw a chance to do a service to the captain,
though it would involve playing an innocent trick on Mr. Tarbill.

Accordingly, when there came a little lull in the wind, Bob made
his way to where the nervous passenger stood with his back braced
against a deckhouse.

"It'll be here pretty soon now," said Bob, shouting to make himself
heard above the noise of the storm.

"What will, my dear young friend?" asked Mr. Tarbill, forgetting
his former anger at Bob under the stress of the circumstances. "Do
you mean to tell us anything else is going to happen?"

"Something surely is, Mr. Tarbill," said Bob, with an air of great
earnestness, moving closer to the man, so as to get away from the
driving rain, as Mr. Tarbill stood under shelter.

"What is coming? Do tell me. I am so very nervous."

"The Jilla-Jilly wind! We'll be in the midst of it soon. You'd
better look out!"

"The Jilla-Jilly wind? For mercy sakes, what's that?"

"It's a kind of a hurricane," said Bob, inventing something on the
spur of the moment. "Only, instead of blowing straight ahead or
around in a circle it blows up and down. It's liable to snatch you
right up to the clouds, or suck you down into the ocean!"

"That is terrible, my dear young friend!"

"Terrible! I should say it was!"

"What had I better do?"

"You'll surely be blown overboard if you stay on deck