p the profits for them; and the
only way in which we can do that is by making quick passages. But of
course, while doing our best to accomplish this, we exercise every
possible precaution. For instance, you seem to think that I am rather
reckless in driving my ship at this speed through the night; but what
have I to fear? We have all the sea-room we want; there are no rocks or
shoals in our road for us to fetch up on; and if we should happen to
fall in with any other vessels, they will be going the same way as
ourselves, so we shall see them in ample time to avoid running over
them. And, in addition to all this, we maintain a first-rate lookout,
one on each bow, two in the waist, and the officer of the watch up here
on the poop; so we need have no fear of collision. Take my word for it,
Mr Conyers; you are every bit as safe aboard here, sir, as if you were
under the pennant!"

After this, of course, there was nothing more to be said, especially as
I was well aware that, in mentioning such a matter at all to the
skipper, I had committed an almost unpardonable breach of nautical
etiquette.

Notwithstanding the strong breeze the night was quite warm, for we were
not very far south of the tropic of Capricorn, and, moreover, it was
close upon the midsummer of the Southern Hemisphere; consequently when
two bells of the first watch struck, a good many of the passengers were
on deck, most of them listening to the miners, who were congregated on
the main deck, singing. As for me, I was right aft, on the wheel
grating, smoking, and staring skyward at the racing cloud masses as they
swept scurrying athwart the face of the moon.

Suddenly a loud yell of dismay and warning arose from the topgallant
forecastle, the only words I caught being, "--_under our bows_!"

The next instant, with a shock that shot me off the grating on to the
poop, the ship was brought up all standing--not stopped dead as though
she had run into a cliff, but rather as a horse stops when pulled up and
thrown on his haunches--and then, as I lay on my back, half stunned by
the shock of my fall, and still gazing skyward, I saw the three masts
bow forward, bending like fishing-rods, when, with a dreadful rending
crash, the entire complicated mechanism of sails, spars, and rigging
went by the board, and lay fore and aft along the deck.

There was a moment's pause of utter silence, broken only by the hissing
splash and rush of water alongside, and the moan