flame far lighting up the sombre surface of the ocean that
shone upon the sleepy Catamarans. Gleaming in the half-closed eye of
the sailor-lad, it awoke him.

Starting up, he beheld an apparition, which caused him surprise, not
unmingled with alarm. It was a ship beyond doubt,--or the semblance of
one,--but such as the sailor-lad had never before seen.

She appeared to be on fire. Vast clouds of smoke were rising up from
her decks, and rolling away over her stern, illuminated by columns of
bright flame that jetted up forward of her foremast, almost to the
height of her lower shrouds. No man unaccustomed to such a sight could
have looked upon that ship without supposing that she was on fire.

Little William should have been able to judge of what he saw.
Unfortunately for himself, the spectacle of a ship on fire was not new
to him. He had witnessed the burning of the bark which had borne him
into the middle of the Atlantic, and left him where he now was, in a
position of extremest peril.

But the memory of that conflagration did not assist him in determining
the character of the spectacle now before his eyes. On the decks of the
_Pandora_ he had seen men endeavouring to escape from the flames, in
every attitude of wild terror. On the ship now in sight he beheld the
very reverse. He saw human beings standing in front of the column of
fire, not only unconcerned at its proximity, but apparently feeding the
flames!

It was a spectacle to startle the most experienced mariner, and call
forth the keenest alarm,--a sight to suggest the double
interrogatory,--"Is it a phantom ship, or a ship on fire?"

CHAPTER NINETY NINE.

A WHALER "TRYING-OUT."

In making the observations above detailed, the boy-sailor had been
occupied scarce ten seconds of time,--only while his eye took in the
singular spectacle thus abruptly brought before it. He did not stay to
seek out of his own thoughts an answer to the question that suggested
itself; but giving way to the terrified surprise which the apparition
had caused him, he raised a shout which instantly awoke his companions.

Each of the three, on the instant of their awaking, gave utterance to a
quick cry, but their shouts, although heard simultaneously, were
significant of very different emotions. The cry of the girl was simply
a scream, expressive of the wildest terror. That of Snowball was a
confused mingling of surprise and alarm; while to the astonishment of
Willia