hen the order
was given to unmoor ship, and the brig began to drop down the river with
the tide. Toward evening a fine fair wind sprang up, and the _Betsy
Jane_, being only in ballast, then began to travel at a rate which threw
her commander into an indescribable state of ecstasy. The voyage was
accomplished without the occurrence of any incident worth recording, and
in something like a week from the date of sailing from London, Bob found
himself at Shields, with the brig under a coal-drop loading again for
the Thames.

Some half a dozen similarly uneventful voyages to the Tyne and back to
London were made by Bob in the _Betsy Jane_. The life of a seaman on
board a collier is usually of a very monotonous character, without a
single attractive feature in it--unless, maybe, that it admits of
frequent short sojourns at home--and Bob's period of service under
Captain Turnbull might have been dismissed with the mere mention of the
circumstance, but for the incident which terminated that service.

It occurred on the sixth voyage which Bob had made in the _Betsy Jane_.
The brig had sailed from the Tyne, loaded with coals for London as
usual, with a westerly wind, which, however, shortly afterwards backed
to S.S.W., with a rapidly falling barometer. The appearance of the
weather grew very threatening, which, coupled with the facts that the
craft was old, weak, and a notoriously poor sailer with the wind
anywhere but on her quarter, seemed to suggest, as the most prudent
course under the circumstances, a return to the port they had just left.
The mate, after many uneasy glances to windward, turned to his superior
officer, who was sitting by the companion placidly smoking, and proposed
this.

The skipper slowly withdrew his pipe from his mouth, and, after
regarding his mate for some moments, as though that individual were a
perfect stranger who had suddenly and unaccountably made his appearance
on board, ejaculated--

"Why?"

"Well, I'm afeard we're goin' to have a very dirty night on it," was the
reply.

"Umph!" was the captain's only commentary, after which he resumed his
pipe, and seemed inclined to doze.

Meanwhile the wind, which had hitherto been of the strength of a fair
working breeze, rapidly increased in force, with occasional sharp
squalls preceded by heavy showers of rain, while the threatening aspect
of the weather grew _every_ moment more unmistakable. The brig was
under topgallant-sails, tearing and