th
the _Flying Eagle_, her crew were privileged to witness a sight that a
man may follow the sea for years without beholding.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

DISMASTED!

It was about one bell in the first dog-watch; the weather was fine, the
water smooth, the breeze light; and the brig, with little more than bare
steerage-way upon her, was laying her course, with squared yards, both
clews of her mainsail hauled up, and studding-sails set on both sides,
her topsails occasionally collapsing and flapping to the masts for lack
of wind to keep them "asleep." Miss Trevor was, as usual, on deck,
seated in a deck-chair, with a book on her lap and the fingers of one
hand playing abstractedly with an ear of the great dog that lay
stretched contentedly upon the deck beside her. Leslie, also with a
book in his hands, was seated right aft upon the taffrail, with his feet
upon the stern grating, in such a position that he could look past the
helmsman right forward and command the entire starboard side of the
deck, as far forward as the windlass-bitts--and, incidentally, study the
varying expressions that flitted athwart Miss Trevor's face as she read.
The carpenter, with the rest of the men, was on the forecastle, looking
after them and busying himself upon some small job that needed
attention. The stillness of the peaceful afternoon seemed to have
fallen upon the vessel; the men conversed together intermittently in
subdued tones, that barely reached aft in the form of a low mumble; and
the only sounds heard were the occasional soft rustle and flap of the
canvas aloft, with an accompanying patter of reef-points, the jar of the
rudder upon its pintles, the jerk of the wheel chains, and the soft,
scarcely audible seething of the water alongside.

Upon this reposeful quietude there suddenly broke the sound of a gentle
"wash" of water close alongside, then a long-drawn, sigh-like
respiration, and a jet of mingled vapour and water shot above the port
bulwark to a height of some ten or twelve feet, so close to the brig
that the next instant a small shower of spray came splashing down on the
deck in the wake of the main rigging.

So totally unexpected was the occurrence that it startled everybody.
Leslie sprang to his feet and looked with mild surprise down into the
water; Miss Trevor dropped her book as she shot out of her chair; the
dog, who had manifested a readiness to respond to the name of Sailor,
leaped up and rushed to the bulwarks, w