ans without removing any of their
clothing.

A _gale_ in good truth it had by this time become; the wind howling
furiously through the brig's rigging, and threatening momentarily to
blow her old worn and patched canvas out of the bolt-ropes. The dull
leaden-coloured ragged clouds raced tumultuously athwart the moonlit
sky; now veiling the scene in deep and gloomy shadow as they swept
across the moon's disc, and anon opening out for an instant to flood the
brig, the sea, and themselves in the glory of the silver rays. The caps
of the waves, torn off by the wind, filled the air with a dense salt
rain, which every now and then gleamed up astern with all the magical
beauty of the lunar rainbow; but though the scene would doubtless have
ravished the soul of an artist by its weird splendour, it is probable
that such an individual would have wished for a more comfortable view-
point than the deck of the _Betsy Jane_. That craft was now rolling and
pitching heavily in the short choppy sea, smothering herself with spray
everywhere forward of the fore-mast, filling her decks with water, which
_swished_ and surged restlessly about and in over the men's boot-tops
with every motion of the vessel, and straining herself until the noise
of her creaking timbers and bulkheads rivalled the shriek of the gale.

At four bells the _Betsy Jane_ gave the watch just half an hour of
steady work to pump her out.

This task at length ended, the men, wet and tired, sought such partial
shelter as was afforded by the lee of the longboat where she stood over
the main hatch, the lee side of the galley, or peradventure the interior
of the same, and there enjoyed such forgetfulness of their discomfort as
could be obtained in a weazel-like surreptitious sleep--with one eye
open, on watch for the possible approach of the skipper or mate. All of
them, that is, except one, who called himself the look-out. This man,
well cased in oilskin, stationed himself at the bowsprit-end--which
being just beyond the reach of the spray from the bows, was possibly as
dry a place as there was throughout the ship, excepting, perhaps, her
cabin--and sitting astride the spar and wedging his back firmly in
between the two parts of the double fore-stay, found himself so
comfortably situated that in less than five minutes he was sound asleep.

Captain Turnbull, meanwhile, occupied his favourite seat near the
companion, and smoked contemplatively, while the mate staggered