a dry wind, while the other one,
the South-Western monsoon, coming from the south over the ocean in the
other half of the year, is a wet wind and brings the rain which is such
a boon to India.

The lightning is continually playing, and I shouldn't be surprised if we
are on the edge of a cyclone, but with a big ship like this, and a
captain who knows his business, there is nothing to be afraid of. These
cyclones, which are called typhoons in the China seas, are curious
storms which twist round and round in a circle, all the time progressing
onward too, and the danger is in getting into the middle of one, for
there, as you may imagine, the wind comes from all quarters at once, and
the waves are piled up on all sides like huge overhanging pyramids. I've
never been in the middle of one, I'm thankful to say, but those who
have, and have escaped with their lives, say that the ship is buffeted
as if by mighty billows which smack down upon her from all directions.
Sometimes there is seen a space of blue sky, and there is a great calm,
but this to the commander is the most ominous sign of all, for he knows
he must be in the centre funnel of the storm, so to speak, and that it
will be worse for him directly!

We had better go to bed, there's nothing else to do.

Are you awake? Yes, I thought even you could hardly sleep through that!
What a smack! It sounds as if the heavens had opened and a water-spout
had descended on deck! What a roar! Can you hear me? All right, come in
here beside me if you like, but there is precious little room. It seems
as if every noise on the ocean had been let loose. The rain must be
simply one great volume of water, and the thunder----Even through our
port-hole the cabin is as light as day with the lightning; it is just
two o'clock in the morning. The thunder seems to come absolutely
instantaneously with the lightning; we must be right in it! I never
heard such crashes. One minute our heads are down below our feet and the
next we are almost standing on end. Hang on! We shall probably get
through all right, this noise doesn't mean anything very bad. But I
thank my stars I'm not an officer on the bridge. How they ever manage to
keep on their feet I don't know, much less how they give directions. One
man told me that he was once in such a sea that when he was pitched off
his feet into one end of the bridge he hadn't time to recover himself
before the same pitch came again and sent him down just as he w