urface by the
fury of the wind; moreover the sea was short, steep, and irregular, much
more nearly resembling the breakers on a coast in shallow water, than
the long, regular, majestically moving seas of the open ocean. The
_Dolphin_, therefore, despite her beautiful model and the reduction of
her tophamper, was beginning to make exceedingly bad weather of it,
frequently burying herself to her foremast, and careening so heavily
that during some of her lee rolls it was impossible to maintain one's
footing on deck except by holding on to something.

At length, about four bells in the first watch, the lightning, which had
hitherto almost continuously illuminated the atmosphere, suddenly ceased
altogether, and the night grew intensely dark, the only objects
remaining visible being the faintly phosphorescent heads of the seas,
flashing into view and gleaming ghostly for a moment before they were
torn into spray by the violence of the wind and whirled away through the
air to leeward. Then, with almost equal suddenness, there came a
positively startling lull in the strength of the wind, and the ship--
which had for some hours been laying over to it so steeply that movement
about her decks was only to be achieved with great circumspection and by
patiently awaiting the arrival of one's opportunity--suddenly rose
almost to an even keel. I seized the chance thus afforded me to claw my
way to the skylight and glance through it at the barometer, illuminated
by the wildly swaying lamp which the steward had lighted when darkness
fell, but, to my intense disappointment, the mercury, which had steadily
been shrinking all day, exhibited a further drop since the index had
been set at eight o'clock that evening.

"We have not yet seen the worst of it," I shouted to Tasker, who,
although it was now his watch below, had elected to remain on deck and
bear me company. "The glass is still going down."

"I'm very sorry to hear it, Mr Fortescue," he answered. "I don't like
the look of things at all. The ship has been most terrible uneasy for
several hours now, and I'm afraid we shall find that she's been
strainin' badly. It might not be amiss to sound the well; and if, as I
fear, we find that she's been takin' water in through her seams, I'd
advise--"

His further speech was cut short by a terrific blast of wind that
swooped down upon us like a howling, screaming fiend, without a moment's
warning. So violent was it that Tasker and I w