nture, when the dense
canopy of black cloud overhead was rent asunder by a flash of lightning,
steel-blue, keen, and dazzlingly vivid, that seemed to strike the water
within a dozen fathoms of us, while simultaneously we were deafened by a
crackling crash of thunder of such appalling loudness and violence that
one might have been excused for believing that the very foundations of
the earth had been riven asunder. So tremendous was the concussion of
it that I quite distinctly felt the longboat quiver and tremble under
its influence. And the next instant down came the rain in a regular
tropical, torrential downpour, causing the sea to hiss as though each
individual drop of rain were red-hot, and starting us to work at once in
both boats with the balers, to save our provisions from being ruined. I
happened to be looking away in a westerly direction when the flash came,
and despite its dazzling vividness I caught a momentary glimpse of the
pirate brig in that direction, and not more than a mile distant from us.
None of the others in the boats appeared to have seen her, for no one
said a word; and I only hoped that no eye on board her had happened to
be turned toward us at the moment, or they could not have failed to see
us; and she was altogether too near for my liking. I said nothing, for
it seemed unnecessary to disturb the men by informing them of her
whereabouts; and I comforted myself with the reflection that when the
squall should come--as come it now must in a very few minutes,--she,
like ourselves, would be compelled to scud before it; and as she would
run two feet to our one, she would soon run us out of sight.

We had not long to wait. After the deluge of rain had lasted some three
minutes it ceased as abruptly as it had begun, and for the space of
perhaps half a minute there was no sound to be heard save the trickling
and dripping of water from the drenched sails of the boats. Then, far
away to the eastward there gradually arose a low moaning, and a sudden
fierce puff of hot air struck us for an instant, filling the sails of
the longboat with a loud flap and leaving them hanging motionless again.

"Here it comes, lads," cried I. "Out with your starboard oars, and get
the boat's head round. That will do. Lay them in again; and one hand
tend the mainsheet here aft."

The moaning sound rapidly grew in intensity until it became first a deep
roar, like the bellowing of a thousand angry bulls, and finally a