ific strife of the elements. Billy was standing by himself, when a
flash, darting through the air, passed so close to him that it appeared
as if he had been struck. It was seen to flash across the deck and to
lose itself in the foaming ocean. Billy uttered a cry and put his hands
to his eyes. Tom asked him if anything had happened.

He answered, "No, only the lightning looked very bright. I thought I
was struck."

The gale continued. No one thought of leaving the deck. Night came on,
yet Billy remained moving about as he had not done for several weeks
past.

"Why, Billy, you seem, to be able to see your way as well as ever," said
Tom, who observed him.

"So I do; although, between the flashes, the night is dark enough, I can
make out objects as well as I ever could."

Though the gale continued, the thunderstorm blew over before midnight,
and Billy, with the rest of the watch below, turned in. The next
evening he found to his infinite satisfaction that his moon blindness no
longer existed, and the doctor and all who pretended to any scientific
knowledge, were of opinion that it had been cured by the electric fluid,
which had glanced across his face.

"Another half-inch, however, and we might have had a different tale to
tell of you," observed the doctor.

"How so?" inquired Billy.

"Why, that you would have been turned into a piece of charcoal, instead
of being restored to sight. There is something to think of, my boy, for
the rest of your days."

A look-out was kept for the _Orion_. Although the gale had ceased, and
the horizon was clear, she was nowhere to be seen.

"I hope they've not been after killing a pig aboard," remarked Pat.
"They may not get off so cheap as we have."

"What do you mean?" asked Tim Nolan.

"Why, for what we can tell, one of them zig-zag flashes may have struck
her, and sent her down to Davy's locker, or fired her magazine and blown
her up sky high."

"I hope that's not Captain Adair's fate," observed Jerry Bird. "I've
sailed with him many a day, and a better officer and a nicer gentleman
does not command one of her Majesty's ships. When I have been on shore
with him, he has been kind and friendly like, and looked after the
interests of his men, seeing that they have plenty of grub when it was
to be got. Never made us work when there was no necessity for it, and I
should be sorry indeed if any harm happened to him."

When, however, day after day went by, and the _O