elded flame of which burned as steadily as
though he had been in a hermetically scaled room, when Miss Trevor
suddenly cried out--

"Oh, look, Mr Leslie, look! Surely there is one of your waterspouts at
last!"

Leslie sprang to her side and looked in the direction toward which she
pointed, where, at a distance of some eight miles away, he beheld a
fully formed waterspout moving very slowly and majestically in a
southerly direction.

"Yes," he agreed, "that is a real, genuine waterspout, and no mistake.
But it is too far off for you to see it to advantage. Did you actually
behold it come into existence?"

"No," she answered; "I was watching the ship yonder, and only caught
sight of it accidentally, after it had become fully formed. I should
really like to witness the genesis of a waterspout."

"Then keep your eye on that cloud," he recommended her, pointing to an
especially black and heavy one that hung a few degrees from the zenith
and apparently about half a mile astern of the barque. "If I am not
greatly mistaken it is about to develop a very fine specimen in a few
minutes. Do you note that black tongue that is slowly stretching down
from it? Although it lengthens and shortens you will observe that it
does not shrink back altogether into the cloud; on the contrary, every
time that it lengthens it becomes perceptibly longer than it was before;
and observe how steadily its root--where it joins the cloud--is
swelling. Now watch, see how it continually stretches down, further and
further towards the water. Ah, and do you see that little mound forming
in the sea immediately beneath it? See how the water heaps itself up,
as though striving to reach up and join the down-stretching tongue of
cloud. Ah! there the two unite and you have the perfect waterspout.
And a very noble example of its kind it is. They will be having a
splendid view of it from yonder barque, for, see, it is moving in her
direction, and is about to pass close to her, rather too close to be
altogether pleasant, unless my eyes deceive me!"

He sprang to the companion, and seizing the telescope, applied it to his
eye.

"Why," he exclaimed excitedly, after a moment or two, with his eye still
glued to the instrument, "what are they about aboard that barque? Why
don't they fire at the thing and break it? It will be upon them in
another moment, to a dead certainty, unless it changes its course! No--
yes--yes, it is going to hit her! Heaven