plash into a deep
hollow, and then rolled so heavily and so suddenly to starboard that we
both gathered way and went with a run into the scuppers just in time to
be drenched to the waist by the heavy fall of water that she dished in
over her rail. This sort of thing soon gave us a taste of the
_Felicidad's_ quality, for so lightly was she framed that the heavy
rolling strained her tremendously, and she began to make so much water
that we were obliged to set the pumps going every two hours, while the
creaking and complaining of her timbers and bulkheads raised a din that
might have been heard half-a-mile away.

"As soon as the breeze comes," said Ryan, as we descended the
companion-ladder to shift into dry clothes, "we will bear up and jog
quietly in for Cape Lopez, which will give us a chance of being
overhauled by something running in for either the Gaboon or the Ogowe,
or of blundherin' up against something coming out from one or the other
of those same rivers. If we don't fall in with annything by the time
that we make the land, we will just stand on and take a look in here and
there, beginning with the Ogowe and working our way northward gradually
until we've thoroughly overhauled the whole of the Bight."

By the time that we were summoned below to dinner, the sky had become
entirely overcast with heavy, black, thunderous-looking clouds that
entirely-obscured the stars, and only allowed the light of the moon to
sift feebly through; yet there was light enough to enable us to see our
way about the deck, or to reveal to a sharp eye a sail as far away as
seven or eight miles, had anything been within that distance. As we
left the deck a quivering gleam of sheet-lightning flashed up along the
western horizon, and Ryan gave Pierrepoint--who was taking the deck for
me while I got my dinner--instructions to keep a sharp eye upon the
weather, as there was no knowing how it might turn out. While we sat at
table the lightning became more vivid and frequent; and after a while
the dull, deep rumble of distant thunder was heard. Presently we heard
Pierrepoint singing out to one of the boys to jump below and fetch up
his oil-skins for him; and a minute or two later the sound of a heavy
shower advancing over the water became audible, rapidly increasing in
volume until it reached us, when in a moment we were almost deafened by
the loud pelting of the rain upon the deck overhead as the overladen
clouds discharged their burden w