report of a musket
fired close to my ear.

"We've sprung the mainmast, I fear," exclaimed Harry, and he called the
men aft to lower the mainsail, while he and I sprang to the peak and
throat halliards to let them go. On examining the mast we found that it
was so badly sprung that it would be impossible again to set sail on it
without the risk of carrying it away. It seemed a wonder that it had
not gone altogether.

"We must bear up for Samoa," said Harry. "It is very provoking, but
there is no place nearer where we can hope to obtain a fresh spar."

Accordingly the headsails were again hoisted, the fore-topsail was set,
and the helm being put up, away we ran before the wind on a course for
Upalu, the centre island of the group, in which Apia, the chief port, is
situated. The wind increased, and we soon had to close-reef the
fore-topsail, the only sail we could carry; then down came the rain in
huge drops, or rather in sheets which wetted us as thoroughly as if we
had jumped overboard, and so deluged the deck that had it not run out at
the scuppers as the vessel rolled from side to side the water would have
been up to our ankles in a few minutes. What with the pattering of the
rain, the howling of the wind and the dashing of the sea, we could
scarcely hear each other's voices. Though we had no sail set on the
mainmast, and had secured it with spars lashed round the injured part,
and additional stays, I frequently, as the schooner pitched into the
fast rising seas, expected to see it carried away altogether. Old Tom,
who seemed to have the same fear, told us to look out and stand from
under, in case it should go, but the difficulty was to know in what
direction it would fall, should it come down.

On we ran day after day, the gale apparently following us, though Harry
said that as storms were generally circular we should in time run out of
it. Each time, however, that I turned out to keep my watch, there we
were, running on; the seas leaping and hissing and foaming around us;
the dark clouds flying overhead; the vessel rolling and pitching in the
same uncomfortable fashion as before. Harry did his best to keep up the
spirits of his wife and Fanny, who behaved like heroines, though they
agreed that they little expected to meet with such weather in the
Pacific.

"It is as well to get it over, and we may hope to have finer for the
rest of the voyage," answered Harry, to console them.

We had other dangers to