ough to keep her laying-to as
long as we can. You'd best get your coats out and put 'em on, and
batten down the hatch."

I let the others go down first, and when they came up I went in, tied
the life-belt round me, and put on my oilskin. I fetched out a bottle
of hollands from my locker, and then came out and fastened the hatch.

"Here comes the first puff," Jabez said.

I stowed away the bottle among some ropes for our future use, and took
hold of the throat halyard.

"Here it comes," Jabez said, as a white line appeared under the cloud
of mist and darkness ahead, and then with a roar it was upon us.

I have been at sea, man and boy, for forty years, and I never remember
in these latitudes such a squall as that. For a few minutes I could
scarcely see or breathe. The spray flew in sheets over us, and the
wind roared so that you wouldn't have heard a sixty-eight-pounder ten
yards off. At first I thought we were going down bodily. It was lucky
we had taken every stitch of canvas off her, for, as she spun round,
the force of the wind against the masts and rigging all but capsized
her. In five minutes the first burst was over, and we were running
before it under our close-reefed foresail only. There was no occasion
for us to stand by the halyards now, and we all gathered in the stern,
and crouched down in the well. Although the sun had only gone down
half an hour it was pitch-dark, except that the white foam round us
gave a sort of dim light that made the sky look all the blacker. The
sea got up in less time than it takes in telling, and we were soon
obliged to hoist the foresail a bit higher to prevent the waves from
coming in over the stern. For three hours we tore on before the gale,
and then it lulled almost as suddenly as it had come on. There had
scarcely been a word spoken between us during this time. I was half
asleep in spite of the showers of spray. Jim Hackers, who was always
smoking, puffed away steadily; Jabez was steering still, and the
others were quite quiet. With the sudden lull we were all on our feet.

"Is it all over, Jabez?" I asked.

"It's only begun," he said. "I scarce remember such a gale as this
since I was a boy. Pass that bottle of yours round, Will; we shall be
busy again directly. One of you take the helm; I'm stiff with the wet.
We shall have it round from the south in a few minutes."

There was scarce a breath of wind now, and she rolled so I thought she
would have turned turtle.