rayless ball of
light to a shapeless blotch of dim, watery radiance, and then
disappeared. At the same time the wind died away until we were left
becalmed and rolling rail-under upon a swell that gathered strength
every hour as it came creeping up from the westward. In a short time it
became a fine example of what the Spaniards call a "furious calm", the
schooner rolling so heavily that I deemed it prudent to send the yards
and topmasts down on deck to relieve the lower-masts. And I did this
the more readily because the steady, continuous decline of the mercury
in the tube assured me that we were booked for a stiff blow. Yet hour
succeeded hour until the darkness closed down upon us, and still, beyond
the portents already mentioned, there was no sign of the coming breeze.
The night fell as dark as a wolf's mouth; the air was so close and hot
that the mere act of breathing was performed with difficulty; and the
quick, jerky roll of the schooner at length became positively
distressing in its persistent monotony. Of course, under the
circumstances, turning in was not to be thought of, so far as I was
concerned. I therefore made myself as comfortable as I could upon the
wheel-grating, and awaited developments.

The fact is that I was puzzled. I did not know what to make of the
weather. Had it not been for the steady, continuous fall of the mercury
I should have expected nothing worse than a fresh breeze from the
westward, preceded perhaps by a thunder-squall; but the barometer
indicated something more serious than that, yet the sky gave no
verifying sign of the approach of anything like a heavy blow. But I had
long ago taken in everything except the boom-foresail, to save the sails
from beating themselves to pieces, so I was pretty well prepared for any
eventuality.

It was close upon midnight when the change came, and then it was nothing
at all alarming, being merely a sudden but by no means violent squall
out from about due west, followed by a heavy downpour of rain. The rain
lasted about a quarter of an hour, and when it ceased we were again
becalmed. Suddenly I became conscious of a faint luminousness somewhere
in the atmosphere, and looking about me to discover the cause, I
observed what looked like a ball of lambent, greenish flame clinging to
the foremast-head, where it swayed about, elongating and contracting
with the roll of the ship, exactly as a gigantic soap-bubble might have
done. It clung there,