door. He peeped in and saw Kathleen on her knees on the stern locker,
with her hands clasped, gazing out of one of the stern windows.

"Hm! she's all right," he muttered, softly re-closing the door and
returning on deck. "If she thinks it's splendid, she don't need no
comfortin'! It's quite clear that she don't know what danger means--and
why should she? Humph! there go some more splendid sights for her," he
added, as what appeared to be chains of fire ascended from the volcano
to the sky.

Just then a soft rain began to fall. It was warm, and, on examination
at the binnacle-lamp, turned out to be mud. Slight at first, it soon
poured down in such quantities that in ten minutes it lay six inches
thick on the deck, and the crew had to set to work with shovels to heave
it overboard. At this time there was seen a continual roll of balls of
white fire down the sides of the peak of Rakata, caused, doubtless, by
the ejection of white-hot fragments of lava. Then showers of masses
like iron cinders fell on the brig, and from that time onward till four
o'clock of the morning of the 27th, explosions of indescribable grandeur
continually took place, as if the mountains were in a continuous roar of
terrestrial agony--the sky being at one moment of inky blackness, the
next in a blaze of light, while hot, choking, and sulphurous smells
almost stifled the voyagers.

At this point the captain again became anxious about Kathleen and went
below. He found her in the same place and attitude--still fascinated!

"My child," he said, taking her hand, "you must lie down and rest."

"Oh! no. Do let me stay up," she begged, entreatingly.

"But you must be tired--sleepy."

"Sleepy! who could sleep with such wonders going on around? Pray
_don't_ tell me to go to bed!"

It was evident that poor Kathy had the duty of obedience to authority
still strong upon her. Perhaps the memory of the Holbein nursery had
not yet been wiped out.

"Well, well," said the captain with a pathetic smile, "you are as safe--
comfortable, I mean--here as in your berth or anywhere else."

As there was a lull in the violence of the eruption just then, the
captain left Kathleen in the cabin and went on deck. It was not known
at that time what caused this lull, but as it preceded the first of the
four grand explosions which effectually eviscerated--emptied--the
ancient crater of Krakatoa, we will give, briefly, the explanation of it
as conjectured by t