one of the shrouds.
The captain and the second mate were on the poop, near the wheel.
The former made his way to him.

"Good morning, Master Repton! Managed to get some sleep?"

"Yes, I have slept all night, captain. I say, isn't this
tremendous? I did not think anything could be like this. It is
splendid, you know, but it takes one's breath away.

"I don't think it is blowing quite so hard, is it?"

"Every bit as hard, but it is more regular, and you are accustomed
to it."

"But I see you have got up some more sail."

"Yes, that's to steady her. You see, when she gets into the trough
between these great waves, the lower sails are almost becalmed; and
we are obliged to show something above them, to keep a little way
on her. We are still lying to, you see, and meet the waves head on.
If her head was to fall off a few points, and one of these waves
took her on the beam, she would go down like a stone.

"Yes, the brig is doing very handsomely. She has a fine run, more
like a schooner than a brig; and she meets the waves easily, and
rises to them as lightly as a feather. She is a beauty!

"If you are going to stay here, lad, you had better lash yourself;
for it is not safe, standing as you are."

Chapter 5: A French Privateer.

As he became more accustomed to the scene around him, and found
that the waves were more terrible in appearance than reality, Bob
began to enjoy it, and to take in its grandeur and wildness. The
bareness of the deck had struck him, at once; and he now saw that
four of the cannon were gone--the two forward guns, on each
side--and he rightly supposed that these must have been run out,
and tumbled overboard, to lighten the ship forward, and enable her
to rise more easily to the waves.

An hour later, the second mate came along.

"You had better come down and get some breakfast," he said. "I am
going down first."

Bob threw off the rope, and followed the mate down into the cabin.
Mr. Probert had just turned out. He had been lying down for two or
three hours, having gone down as daylight broke.

"The captain says you had better take something before you go on
deck, Mr. Probert," the second mate said. "He will come down,
afterwards, and turn in for an hour or two."

"No change, I suppose?"

"No. She goes over it like a duck. The seas are more regular, now,
and she is making good weather of it."

Bob wondered, in his own mind, what she would do if she was making
bad weather.