t of night, an occasional star twinkling here and
there in the dark vault overhead, like a sign-post in the immensity of
space, making the wild billowy waste, through which we tore with all the
power of wind and steam, seem all the wilder from contrast.

We had carried on like this for about an hour, steering steadily to the
southwards, without catching sight again of the strange ship, though
Spokeshave and I had continued to let off signal rockets and burn blue
lights at intervals, the gale increasing in force each instant, and the
waves growing bigger and bigger, so that they rose over the topsail as
we raced along, when, all at once, a great green sea broke amidships,
coming aboard of us just abaft of the engine-room hatchway, flooding all
the waist on either side of the deckhouse and rolling down below in a
regular cataract of tumid water, sweeping everything before it.

"That's pretty lively," exclaimed Captain Applegarth, clutching hold of
the rail to preserve his balance as he turned to the quartermaster at
the wheel. "Steady there, my man! Keep her full and by!"

"Aye, aye, sir," answered Atkins. "But she do yaw so, when she buries
her bows. She's got too much sail on her, sir."

"I know that," said the skipper. "But I'm going to carry on as long as
I can, all the same, my man."

Even as he spoke, however, a second sea followed the first, nearly
washing us all off the bridge, and smashing the glass of the skylight
over the engine-room, besides doing other damage.

By Captain Applegarth's directions, a piece of heavy tarpaulin was
lashed over the broken skylight, securing the ends to ringbolts in the
deck; but hardly had the covering been made fast ere we could see the
chief engineer picking his way towards us, struggling through the water
that still lay a foot deep in the waist and looking as pale as death.

"Hullo, Mr Stokes," cried the skipper, when the old chief with great
difficulty had gained the vantage of the bridge-ladder. "What's the
matter now, old fellow?"

He was too much exhausted at first to reply.

"What's the matter?" he echoed ironically when able at last to speak.
"Oh, nothing at all worth mentioning; nothing at all. I told you how it
would be, sir, if you insisted on going ahead full speed in such weather
as we're having! Why, Cap'en Applegarth, the stoke-hold's full of water
and the bilgepump's choked, that's all; and the fires, I expect, will be
drowned out in another minute