process. The instant the wind shifted,
the rain broke forth, filling the air in a moment with its volume,
and cutting so sharply that it seemed like hail, though no hailstones
reached the ground. At the same time there rose upon the water a dense
white film, which seemed to grow together from a hundred different
directions, and was made partly of rain, and partly of the blown edges
of the spray. There was but a glimpse of this; for in a few moments it
was impossible to see two rods; but when the first gust was over,
the water showed itself again, the jets of spray all beaten down, and
regular waves, of dull lead-color, breaking higher on the shore. All the
depth of blackness had left the sky, and there remained only an obscure
and ominous gray, through which the lightning flashed white, not red.
Boats came driving in from the mouth of the bay with a rag of sail up;
the men got them moored with difficulty, and when they sculled ashore
in the skiffs, a dozen comrades stood ready to grasp and haul them in.
Others launched skiffs in sheltered places, and pulled out bareheaded
to bail out their fishing-boats and keep them from swamping at their
moorings.

The shore was thronged with men in oilskin clothes and by women with
shawls over their heads. Aunt Jane, who always felt responsible for
whatever went on in the elements, sat in-doors with one lid closed,
wincing at every flash, and watching the universe with the air of a
coachman guiding six wild horses.

Just after the storm had passed its height, two veritable wild
horses were reined up at the door, and Philip burst in, his usual
self-composure gone.

"Emilia is out sailing!" he exclaimed,--"alone with Lambert's boatman,
in this gale. They say she was bound for Narragansett."

"Impossible!" cried Hope, turning pale. "I left her not three hours
ago." Then she remembered that Emilia had spoken of going on board the
yacht, to superintend some arrangements, but had said no more about it,
when she opposed it.

"Harry!" said Aunt Jane, quickly, from her chair by the window, "see
that fisherman. He has just come ashore and is telling something. Ask
him."

The fisherman had indeed seen Lambert's boat, which was well known.
Something seemed to be the matter with the sail, but before the storm
struck her, it had been hauled down. They must have taken in water
enough, as it was. He had himself been obliged to bail out three times,
running in from the reef.

"Was there an