to find my things. They were all over the place."

"How horrid! And what a miserable place to dress in!"

"Better than a sandbank in a seal's hole."

"Oh! don't talk about it."

"Why not? It's over. Deal better off than we have been lately, for we
have got an invitation to breakfast."

"I wish you wouldn't do that, Cinder," said Mike querulously.

"Do what? I didn't do anything."

"Now you're at it again, trying to cut jokes and making the best of
things at a time like this."

"All right: I'm silent, then," said Vince. "Shall I go on deck?"

"Go? what for?"

"Leave you more room to dress."

"It will be very shabby if you do go before I'm dressed. If ever two
fellows were bound to stick together it's us now. Oh dear, how awkward
everything is! I say, there's no danger, is there?" cried Mike, as the
lugger gave a tremendous plunge and then seemed to wallow down among the
waves.

"No, I don't see what danger there can be. Seems a beautifully built
boat, and I daresay Jacques is a capital sailor."

"A scoundrel!" said Mike bitterly.

"Now, _mes enfans_, get up," cried the skipper's voice; and this was
followed by a smart banging at the door, which was opened and a head
thrust in.

"If you sall bose be ill you can stay in bed to-day; but you vill be
better up. Vell, do you feel vairy seek?"

"No, we're all right," said Vince; and soon after the two boys climbed
on deck and had to shelter themselves from the spray, which was flying
across the deck in a sharp shower.

It was a black-looking morning, and the gloom of the clouds tinged the
surface of the sea, whose foaming waves looked sooty and dingy to a
degree, while the boys found now how much more severe the storm was than
they had supposed when below. The men were all in their oilskins, very
little canvas was spread, and they were right out in a heavy, chopping
sea, with no sign of land on any hand.

They had to stagger to the lee bulwarks and hold on, for the lugger
every now and then indulged in a kick and plunge, while from time to
time a wave came over the bows, deluging the deck from end to end.

But before long the slight feeling of scare which had attacked the boys
passed off, as they saw the matter-of-fact, composed manner in which the
men stood at their various stations, while the captain was standing now
beside the helmsman, and appeared to be giving him fresh directions as
to the course he was to steer, with the result that, a