ened so considerably that the slight
amount of weather-helm afforded by the lashed wheel had at length proved
insufficient, with the result that the brig had shot into the wind,
throwing both topsails aback and her fore and aft canvas a-shiver.
Instinctively I sprang to the wheel and put it well over, just in time
to pay the vessel off again; but it was fully half an hour before I had
again hit off the exact position of the wheel with sufficient nicety to
allow of its being again lashed, and the brig once more left to take
care of herself.

During this operation I had been anxiously scanning the sky, but beyond
a few small: and scattered fleeces of cloud here and there, it remained
as clear as it had been at sunset; and, having at length adjusted the
wheel to my satisfaction, I came to the conclusion that I might safely
leave matters as they were until the morning, and secure a little more
rest while the opportunity remained to me. I therefore resumed my
recumbent position upon the wheel grating, and was soon once more
asleep.

This time, however, I slept less soundly than before. The curious
instinct of watchfulness even in slumber that is so quickly developed in
sailors and others who are constantly exposed to danger was now fully
aroused, and although I slept, my senses and faculties were so far on
the alert that when, somewhat later, the wind suddenly breezed up in a
spiteful squall, I heard the moan of it before it reached the brig, and
was broad awake and on my feet in time to put the helm up and keep broad
away before it. The wind came away strong enough to make me anxious for
the topmasts for a few minutes; but as the yards were braced sharp up,
while the brig was running away dead before it, the wind struck the
sails very obliquely, and the spars were thus relieved of a great deal
of the strain that would otherwise have come upon them.

Of course there was no more sleep for me that night, for when at length
the squall had blown itself out it left behind it a strong northerly
breeze that very soon knocked up a sea, heavy enough to make me ardently
wish for daylight and the opportunity to shorten sail.

And when the dawn at length appeared, I grew more anxious than ever, for
the new day showed as a long, ragged gash of fierce, copper-yellow light
glaring through a gap in an otherwise unbroken expanse of dirty grey
cloud, struck here and there with dashes of dull crimson colour. The
air was unnaturally cle