ss of the night beyond. So much he was able to
distinguish, though what coast it might be he could not tell, for
presently another flash falling from the sky, he saw that the shore was
shut out by the approaching downfall of rain.

This rain came presently streaming down upon them with a great gust of
wind and a deal of white foam across the water. This violent gale of
wind suddenly striking the vessel, careened it to one side so that for
a moment it was with much ado that he was able to keep his feet at all.
Indeed, what with the noise of the tempest through the rigging and the
flashes of lightning and the pealing of the thunder and the clapping of
an unfurled sail in the darkness, and the shouting of orders in a
strange language by the Captain of the craft, who was running up and
down like a bedlamite, it was like pandemonium with all the devils of
the pit broke loose into the night.

It was at this moment, and Barnaby True was holding to the back-stays,
when a sudden, prolonged flash of lightning came after a continued
space of darkness. So sharp and heavy was this shaft that for a moment
the night was as bright as day, and in that instant occurred that which
was so remarkable that it hath afforded the title of this story itself.
For there, standing plain upon the deck and not far from the
companionway, as though he had just come up from below, our hero beheld
a figure the face of which he had seen so imperfectly once before by
the flash of his own pistol in the darkness. Upon this occasion,
however, the whole figure was stamped out with intense sharpness
against the darkness, and Barnaby beheld, as clear as day, a great
burly man, clad in a tawdry tinsel coat, with a cocked hat with gold
braid upon his head. His legs, with petticoat breeches and cased in
great leathern sea-boots pulled up to his knees, stood planted wide
apart as though to brace against the slant of the deck. The face our
hero beheld to be as white as dough, with fishy eyes and a bony
forehead, on the side of which was a great smear as of blood.

All this, as was said, stood out as sharp and clear as daylight in that
one flash of lightning, and then upon the instant was gone again, as
though swallowed up into the darkness, while a terrible clap of thunder
seemed to split the very heavens overhead and a strong smell as of
brimstone filled the air around about.

At the same moment some voice cried out from the darkness, "William
Brand, by God!"