e blazed forth the full moon with a lustre that
I never before knew her to wear. She lit up every thing about us with
the greatest distinctness--but, oh God, what a scene it was to light up!

"I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother--but, in some
manner which I could not understand, the din had so increased that I
could not make him hear a single word, although I screamed at the top
of my voice in his ear. Presently he shook his head, looking as pale as
death, and held up one of his finger, as if to say _'listen! '_

"At first I could not make out what he meant--but soon a hideous thought
flashed upon me. I dragged my watch from its fob. It was not going. I
glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as I
flung it far away into the ocean. _It had run down at seven o'clock!
We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the Stroem was in
full fury!_

"When a boat is well built, properly trimmed, and not deep laden, the
waves in a strong gale, when she is going large, seem always to slip
from beneath her--which appears very strange to a landsman--and this is
what is called _riding_, in sea phrase. Well, so far we had ridden the
swells very cleverly; but presently a gigantic sea happened to take us
right under the counter, and bore us with it as it rose--up--up--as
if into the sky. I would not have believed that any wave could rise so
high. And then down we came with a sweep, a slide, and a plunge,
that made me feel sick and dizzy, as if I was falling from some lofty
mountain-top in a dream. But while we were up I had thrown a quick
glance around--and that one glance was all sufficient. I saw our exact
position in an instant. The Moskoe-Stroem whirlpool was about a quarter
of a mile dead ahead--but no more like the every-day Moskoe-Stroem, than
the whirl as you now see it is like a mill-race. If I had not known
where we were, and what we had to expect, I should not have recognised
the place at all. As it was, I involuntarily closed my eyes in horror.
The lids clenched themselves together as if in a spasm.

"It could not have been more than two minutes afterward until we
suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. The
boat made a sharp half turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new
direction like a thunderbolt. At the same moment the roaring noise of
the water was completely drowned in a kind of shrill shriek--such a
sound as you might imagine given out by t