all been rigged; indeed, the process of bending
new sails, ropes, etcetera, was still being gone on with although the
ships had been got under way at the earliest possible moment.
Shot-holes had been only roughly plugged, and in some of the vessels
pumping was still being carried on day and night. The two prizes had
been knocked about still more badly; in fact the whole squadron was in a
very unfit state to encounter even a strong gale, and the coming storm
threatened something very much worse than this. But everything was
battened down and made as snug as possible, and all that Cavendish could
now do was to trust in Providence and hope his ships would survive the
tempest, since nothing had been left undone that mortal hands could
possibly do.

A dull moaning sound at length began to make itself heard, and several
hot sulphurous gusts of wind came down out of the north; the blocks
overhead creaked, the cordage rattled, and in the heavy silence weird
noises made themselves perceptible. Roger and Harry were standing on
the poop, exchanging comments on the weather, and Cavendish and his
chief officer, Richard Leigh, were in close conversation on the
main-deck just below them, glancing anxiously from time to time toward
the northward, where the sky had become black almost as midnight.

"Look there, Harry," observed Roger, pointing to the main-topgallant
yard; and, looking up, Harry perceived two lambent globes of greenish
fire.

As he continued looking and wondering what they might be, other weird
lights made their appearance on the yard-arms and on the very tops of
the masts, presenting a beautiful, but at the same time a very eerie,
spectacle. The same phenomenon was to be seen on the spars of every
vessel in sight; and as it was by this time very nearly dark (there
being scarcely any twilight in these latitudes), the whole squadron had
the appearance of being illuminated.

"Whatever can it possibly be?" queried Harry; "I have never seen
anything like it before."

"I suspect," returned Roger, "that it is in some way connected with the
approaching storm. I have heard sailors speak of those lights as
witch-lights, death-gleams, and corposants, and their appearance is said
always to foretell disaster. I hope, however, that they do not forebode
evil on this occasion, although things are looking decidedly unpleasant
just now."

Cavendish, hearing their conversation, looked up, and, observing the
apprehension of