to be sure of its exact direction.

However, of one thing I was confident. The sailing vessel which I had so
joyfully discovered an hour ago, lay in the track of the waterspout. She
lay still becalmed and if the spout threatened to board her, there
would be no possible chance of the vessel's escaping destruction.

CHAPTER XII

IN WHICH I FIND MYSELF BOUND FOR SOUTHERN SEAS

My little sloop pitched so abominably that I could not stand upright,
but fell into her sternsheets and there clung to the tiller as she swept
along in the wake of the tornado. The waves did not break about the
Wavecrest, for she was still within the charmed circle of oily
calmness supplied by the dead whale. At some distance, however, the
waves were tossed about most tempestuously.

I could see the bark from bow to stern, for she lay broadside to me.
When the draught from the south first struck her she went over slowly
almost upon her beam-ends; but righted majestically and her helm being
put over she slewed around so as to take the gale bow-on.

She mounted the first wave splendidly and I saw her crew gathered
forward in her bows. They seemed to be at work on something and there
was a vast amount of running back and forth upon her deck. Meanwhile
the waterspout, whirling like a dervish, bore down upon the bark.

The great column of water passed between me and the bark, then swung
around and rushed down upon the craft in a way to threaten its complete
extinction. I expected nothing more than to see the bark borne down and
sunk under the weight of the bursting waterspout.

But when it was still several cable-lengths from the bark I saw the
group upon her forward deck separate, and a long cannon was revealed.
Its muzzle was slewed a little over the port bow and the next instant it
spoke. The explosion sharply echoed across the sea, audible to my ears
despite the huge roaring of the waterspout.

The column of water, rushing down upon the bark, was cut in twain by the
ball from the gun. The connection 'twixt the whirling cloud and the
whirling water was actually severed by it. Had the spout swept aboard
the bark the great ship would have scarcely escaped complete wreck. As
it was, the revolving water poured down into the ocean with the noise of
a cascade, beating the sea to foam for yards and yards around, but
without doing the slightest damage either to the bark, or to my little
sloop.

The tornado tore into the north, smaller spouts