ith all the fierce vehemence of a truly
tropical downpour.

At the first crash of the rain upon the deck Ryan and I both with one
accord glanced hastily at the barometer that was hanging suspended in
gimbals in the skylight; the mercury had dropped slightly, but not
sufficient to arouse any uneasiness, and we therefore went quietly on
with our dinner, although Ryan shouted across the table to me--

"When the rain comes before the wind,
Halliards, sheets, and braces mind."

There was little danger, however, of our being caught unawares, for we
had long ago clewed up and hauled down everything, except the
boom-foresail and jib, to save the sails from thrashing themselves
threadbare with the rolling of the ship; we consequently awaited the
development of events with perfect equanimity. The downpour lasted
perhaps three minutes, and then ceased with startling abruptness,
leaving us in absolute silence save for the rush and splash of the water
athwart the flooded decks with the now greatly diminished rolling of the
schooner, the gurgle of the spouting scuppers, the kicking of the rudder
upon its gudgeons, the groaning and complaining of the timbers, or the
voices of the people on deck, and the soft patter of their bare feet
upon the wet planks as they moved here and there. The shower had
knocked the swell down very considerably, rendering the movements of the
schooner much more easy than they had been, and we were able to finish
our meal in peace and comfort without the continued necessity to steady
the plate with one hand and the tumbler with the other, keeping a wary
eye upon the viands meanwhile, in readiness to dodge any of them that
might happen to fetch away in our direction, and snatching a mouthful or
a sip in the brief intervals when the ship became comparatively steady.

When we again went on deck the sky presented a really magnificent
spectacle, the vast masses of heavy, electrically-charged cloud being
piled one above the other in a fashion that resembled, to me, nothing so
much as a chaos of titanic rocks of every conceivable shape and colour,
the forms and hues of the clouds being rendered distinctly visible by
the incessant play of the sheet-lightning among their masses. Not only
the whole sky, but the entire atmosphere seemed to be a-quiver with the
silent electric discharges, and the effect was indescribably beautiful
as the quick, tremulous flashes blazed out, now here, now there,
strongly illumi