he occasion was pressing. Fortunately, in so small and
lightly-rigged a craft as the _Felicidad_, the task of preparing her for
the forthcoming battle with the elements was not a heavy one, and, being
well manned for our size, we were soon ready.

None too soon, however. For hardly had the finishing touches been given
to our preparations, and the guns and boats made thoroughly secure, than
we were momentarily dazzled and blinded by a terrific flash of blue
lightning that seemed to dart from the clouds immediately overhead, and
to strike the water close to us, filling the dead and heavy air with a
strong odour of brimstone, while simultaneously we were deafened and
stunned by a most awful, ear-splitting _crack_ of thunder that made the
schooner quiver from stem to stern as though she had been struck by a
heavy shot.

Ryan, Pierrepoint, and I were all standing close together near the
companion at the moment when the lightning flashed out, illumining the
whole scene for an instant with a light as brilliant as that of the
noonday sun, and while I was still in process of recovering from the
shock produced by the terrifying crash of the thunder, I heard my
fellow-mid exclaim to the captain--

"There! did you see that, sir? There is a craft of some sort away out
there," pointing in a north-easterly direction. "I saw her as
distinctly as possible. She is about six miles away, and is stripped to
her close-reefed topsails--"

"Did you see that ship out there on our port-quarter, sir?" hailed one
of the men from the forecastle, interrupting Master Freddy in his tale.

"No," answered Ryan sharply. "I wasn't looking that way. What did she
look like?"

"She is a square-rigged craft of about three or four hundred tons, under
close-reefed topsails, lying end-on to us, sir," answered the man.

"Surely it can't be our old friend the barque that has drifted within
view of us again during the darkness?" exclaimed Ryan excitedly. "Keep
a good look-out for her, lads, when the next flash comes," he added in
an eager tone of voice, that showed conclusively how secondary a matter
the impending outburst of the elements had already become to him in view
of this new discovery.

No second flash came, however, but instead of it, and almost as the last
words left Ryan's lips, the clouds above us burst, and there descended
from them the heaviest downpour of rain that I had ever up to that time
witnessed. Those who have never beheld a