ready lost the damp and
peculiar feeling of an easterly breeze; and little eddies were beginning
to flutter among the masts--precursors of the coming squall. Then, a
rushing, roaring sound was heard moaning along the ocean, whose surface
was first dimpled, next ruffled, and finally covered, with one sheet of
clear, white, and spotless foam. At the next moment the power of the wind
fell full upon the inert and labouring Bristol trader.

As the gust approached, Wilder had seized the slight opportunity, afforded
by the changeful puffs of air, to get the ship as much as possible before
the wind; but the sluggish movement of the vessel met neither the wishes
of his own impatience nor the exigencies of the moment. Her bows had
slowly and heavily fallen off from the north, leaving her precisely in a
situation to receive the first shock on her broadside. Happy it was, for
all who had life at risk in that defenceless vessel, that she was not
fated to receive the whole weight of the tempest at a blow. The sails
fluttered and trembled on their massive yards, bellying and collapsing
alternately for a minute, and then the rushing wind swept over them in a
hurricane.

The "Caroline" received the blast like a stout and buoyant ship, yielding
readily to its impulse, until her side lay nearly incumbent on the element
in which she floated; and then, as if the fearful fabric were conscious of
its jeopardy, it seemed to lift its reclining masts again, struggling to
work its way heavily through the water.

"Keep the helm a-weather! Jam it a-weather, for your life!" shouted
Wilder, amid the roar of the gust.

The veteran seaman at the wheel obeyed the order with steadiness, but in
vain he kept his eyes riveted on the margin of his head sail, in order to
watch the manner the ship would obey its power. Twice more, in as many
moments, the tall masts fell towards the horizon, waving as often
gracefully upward and then they yielded to the mighty pressure of the
wind, until the whole machine lay prostrate on the water.

"Reflect!" said Wilder, seizing the bewildered Earing by the arm, as the
latter rushed madly up the steep of the deck; "it is our duty to be calm:
Bring hither an axe."

Quick as the thought which gave the order, the admonished mate complied,
jumping into the mizzen-channels of the ship, to execute, with his own
hands, the mandate that he well knew must follow.

"Shall I cut?" he demanded, with uplifted arms, and in a voice