suddenly ceased,
and the murky darkness of the atmosphere as suddenly gave place to a
vivid yellow light, a change which caused the skipper to spring to his
feet and rush out on deck without even the pretence of an apology to his
passengers for so abrupt a movement. On reaching the deck his first
glance was to the eastward, the direction from which the light emanated,
and he then saw that the heavy veil of black cloud--which now completely
overspread the heavens--was in that quarter rent asunder, leaving a
great gap through which was revealed a momentarily increasing patch of
pale straw-coloured sky. The water was every where black as ink save
beneath this livid streak, but there it presented the appearance of a
long line of snow-white foam advancing toward the ship with terrific
rapidity.

The second-mate, who was in charge of the deck, was standing on the poop
regarding this phenomenon with a doubtful expression of visage, which
gave place to one of unmistakable relief when he saw the skipper on
deck.

"That looks like a squall coming down, sir"--he began. But Captain
Blyth had no time to attend to him just then; he saw that there was not
a moment to be lost, and turning his back unceremoniously upon Mr
Willoughby he shouted:

"Stand by your topsail-halliards here, the watch! Hurry up, my lads, or
we shall lose the sticks! Let run, fore and aft!"

The men, who saw what was coming, and had been expecting the call,
sprang at once to their stations, let go the halliards, and then helped
the revolving yards down by manning the topsail-clewlines, by which
means the three topsails were snugly close-reefed by the moment that the
squall burst upon them. There was no time to do more or Captain Blyth
would have taken the courses off the ship. As it was she had to bear
them; and so heavy was the squall that during its height the vessel was
compelled to run dead before it. Her head was, however, brought to the
southward the moment that it was safe to do so, and away she went like a
frightened thing, tearing through the surges with her lee gunwale under.
The first fury of the squall was spent in about a quarter of an hour,
but it continued to blow with great violence until noon, when the gale
broke and the crew were able to take a pull of a few feet upon the
topsail-halliards. By eight bells in the afternoon watch the ship was
under whole topsails once more, with a clear sea all round her and a
rapidly clearing sky;