.
The ''oly Joes' were singing together as they sailed; the tune was an
old familiar one that minded us of quiet Sabbath days in the homeland,
of kirk and kent faces, and, somehow, we felt that it was we who were
the 'bloomin' 'eathens,' for their song was 'Rock of Ages,' and it had
a new sound, mellowed by distance and the water.

XVI

EAST, HALF SOUTH

On a day of high action in sea and sky we fled, hot-foot, before the
fury of a nor'-west gale. We had run her overlong. Old Jock, for once
at any rate, had had his weather eye bedimmed. He was expecting a
quick shift into the sou'-west, a moderate gale, and a chance to make
his 'easting' round Cape Horn, but the wind hung stubbornly in the
nor'-west; there was no break in the sky, no cessation in the black
bursts of rain and sleet that swept upon us. A huge sea set up, and we
were past the time when we could, in safety, heave her to the wind.
There was nothing for it but to run--run she did.

We had tops'ls and a reefed foresail on her while daylight lasted, but
on threat of darkness we stowed all but the foretops'l; wings enough
for the weight of a hurricane wind. Under that narrow band of
straining canvas she sped on into the murk of advancing night, while
behind the lurid western sky showed threat of a mightier blast in bank
upon bank of ragged storm-cloud. It was a wild night, never a wilder!

In the darkness the uncanny green shimmer of breaking seas gave an
added terror to the scene of storm. Rain and stinging sleet swept
constantly over us, thundering seas towered and curled at our stern,
lapping viciously at the fleeting quarter, or, parting, crashed aboard
at the waist, filling the decks man high with a power of destruction.
Part of the bulwarks were torn from the side. That was, perhaps, the
saving of us, for the seas swept off as fast as they thundered aboard,
and the barque rode buoyant, when, with bulwarks standing, the weight
of compassed water would have held her at mercy of the next towering
greybeard. A boat on the forward skids was smashed to atoms and the
wreck swept overboard, and every moment we looked to see our crazy
half-deck go tottering to ruin. The fo'ca'sle was awash through a
shattered door, and all hands were gathered on the poop for such safety
as it held. There was nowhere else where man could stand on the
reeling hull, and crouching at the rails, wet and chilled to the
marrow, we spent the night a-watching.

The