cabin door, and informed them that a
heavy squall was rising to westward.

They hurried on deck, which no sooner had they reached, than the
stranger, looking hastily in the quarter indicated, shook Captain Lane
warmly by the hand saying:

"I must go aboard, captain; that will be a heavy squall. Keep me in
sight if you can; but, if we part company, meet me off Cape Frio--this
side of it--to-morrow; wait for me till night, if you do not see me
before. Good-by!" and springing into his boat, he pulled away for
his vessel.

Captain Lane never saw him again alive.

No sooner was he over the side, than the captain gave orders to shorten
sail. He took in royals and topgallant sails, furled the courses,
trysail and jib, and double-reefed the topsails. They braced the yards a
little to starboard, hauled the foretopmast staysail sheet well aft, and
the captain, thinking he had everything snug, stood looking over the
weather rails, watching the approaching squall. The wind had almost died
away, and the atmosphere seemed strangely oppressive. Captain Lane was
an old sea-dog and had witnessed many strange phenomena on the ocean;
but never had he seen a squall approach so singularly. It seemed to move
very slowly--a great black cloud, which looked intensely luminous
withal, and yet so dense and heavy, that an ordinary observer might have
mistaken it for one of the ordinary rain squalls encountered in the
tropics. Captain Lane consulted his barometer, and found it
falling rapidly.

"Clew the topsails up!" shouted the captain to the mate. "All hands lay
aloft and furl them!"

The order was quickly obeyed; and just as the sailors reached the deck,
the squall struck them. It did not come as it was expected; it had
worked up from the westward, but struck the _Ocean Star_ dead from the
South. In an instant they were over, nearly on their beam ends, and a
heavy sea rushed over the lee-rail, filling the deck.

"Hard up your helm!" shouted the captain, and, springing aft, he found
the helmsman jammed under the tiller, and the second mate vainly
endeavoring to heave it up. Taking hold with him, by their united
efforts they at last succeeded; and, after a moment's suspense, the
_Ocean Star_ slowly wore off before the wind and, rising out of the
water, shook herself like an affrighted spaniel and darted off with
fearful speed before the hurricane.

Leaving orders to keep her "steady before it" the captain went forward
to ascertain the