getting every soul of her crew washed off her deck, except three--
the black cook, the caulker's mate, and the captain's steward--and a
pretty job they had to find their way into port, seeing that neither of
them knew anything of navigation, or seamanship either, for that matter;
and I should like to know whose case you would be in, Sunshine Bill, if
you were left with Dio and Ned Farring, aboard this craft?"

"All I can say is, I hope we should do our best, and trust to
Providence," answered Bill. "I have never heard that a man can do more
than that, and that's what I hope I shall always do, as long as I have
life."

On went the _Lilly_ before the still increasing hurricane. The
topgallant masts were struck, and topmasts housed, the yards secured by
rolling tackles, and the ship made as snug as she could be. This was
done not a bit too soon, for it was evident that she was about to
encounter one of the fiercest of West Indian hurricanes, such as have
sent many a stout ship to the bottom.

CHAPTER FIVE.

The wind howled, and shrieked, and whistled in the rigging, the seas
roared and dashed against the sides of the corvette, as under bare poles
she rushed on amidst them. Now she rose to the summit of a dark green
mountainous billow, with its crest all leaping, foaming, and hissing;
then she glided rapidly down its side, as if it had been an
ice-mountain, into the dark valley below, again to rise up more slowly
to the top of another sea, suddenly to find herself once more in the
deep trough, with a huge curling wave reaching almost to her tops,
threatening to break over her. Two of the quartermasters were at the
helm. The officers were all on deck, the crew at their stations. No
one could tell what might next happen.

"If the wind holds as it does now, we shall be all right," observed Mr
Truck, the master, "but if it shifts, we may find ourselves running in
among some ugly navigation, and our best chance is to scud as we are
doing."

"Hurricanes always do shift," observed Captain Trevelyan: "but we must
hope for the best. The wind may hold in its present quarter for some
time to come."

"Well, Bill, what do you think of this here breeze?" asked Tommy Rebow.
"I was telling you it blew pretty stiffish out in these parts."

"Why, that if I had my choice, I would rather it did not blow so hard;
but then do you see, Tommy, we have not got our choice, and it's for us
to take the weather as we find it. I