s, broken into at regular intervals by the low thunder of
the surge, burying my cabin porthole and rising to the line of the rail
as the yacht's stern sank with a long slanting heel-over of the whole
fabric. I fell asleep at last, and as I afterwards gathered, slept
till somewhat after three o'clock in the morning. I was awakened by
suddenly and violently rolling out of my bunk. The fall was a heavy
one; I was a big fellow, and struck the plank of the deck hard, and
though I was instantly awakened by the shock of the capsisal, I lay for
some moments in a condition of stupefaction, sensible of nothing but
that I had tumbled out of my bunk.

The little berth was in pitch darkness, and I lay, as I have said,
motionless and almost dazed, till my ear caught a sound of shrieking
ringing through a wild but subdued note of storm on deck, mingled with
loud and fearful shouts, as of men bawling for life or death, with a
trembling in every plank and fastening of the little fabric as though
she were tearing herself to pieces. I got on to my legs, but the angle
of the deck was so prodigious that I leaned helpless against the
bulkhead, to the base of which I had rolled, though unconsciously. The
shrieks were continued; I recognised Grace's voice, and the sound put a
sort of frenzy into me, insomuch that, scarcely knowing how I managed,
I had in an instant, opened the door of my little berth, and was
standing, grabbing hold of the cabin table, shouting to let her know
that I was awake and up, and that I heard her.

_Now_, the uproar of what I took to be a squall of hurricane power was
to be easily heard. The bellowing of the wind was horrible, and it was
made more terrifying to land-going ears by the incessant hoarse shouts
of the fellows on deck; but bewildered as I was, agitated beyond
expression, not knowing but that as I stood there, gripping the table
and shouting my sweetheart's name, the yacht might be foundering under
my feet, I had wits enough to observe that the vessel was slowly
recovering a level keel, rising from the roof-like slant which had
flung me from my bed to an inclination that rendered the use of one's
legs possible. I likewise noticed that she neither plunged nor rolled
with greater heaviness than I had observed in her before I lay down.
The sensation of her motion was as though she was slowly rounding
before the wind, and beginning to scud over a surface that had been
almost flattened by a hurricane-bur