te, blew
harder than ever. And oh, what a dreary outlook it was when, swathed in
oilskins, I passed through the hatchway and stepped out on deck! The
sky was entirely veiled by an unbroken mass of dark, purplish, slate-
coloured cloud that was almost black in its deeper shadows, with long,
tattered streamers of dirty whitish vapour scurrying wildly athwart it;
a heavy, leaden-hued, white-crested, foam-flecked sea was running, and
in the midst of the picture was the poor crippled frigate, rolling and
labouring and staggering onward like a wounded sea-bird under her jury-
spars and spray-darkened canvas, with a miniature ocean washing hither
and thither athwart her heaving deck, and a crowd of panting, straining,
half-naked men clustering about her pumps, while others were as busily
employed in passing buckets up and down through the hatchways; the whole
set to the dismal harmony of howling wind, hissing spray, the wearisome
and incessant wash of water, and the groaning and complaining sounds of
the labouring hull. The skipper and the first luff were pacing the
weather side of the poop together in earnest converse, and at each turn
in their walk they both paused for an instant, as by mutual consent, to
cast a look of anxious inquiry to windward.

Presently I saw the carpenter coming along the deck with the sounding-
rod in his hand. I intercepted him just by the foot of the poop ladder
and remarked--

"Well, Chips, what is the best news you have to tell us?"

"The best news?" echoed Chips, with a solemn shake of the head; "there
ain't _no_ best, Mr Courtenay, it's all worst, sir; there's over four
foot of water in the hold now, and it's gainin' on us at the rate of
five inches an hour; and if this here gale don't break pretty quick I
won't answer for the consequences!"

And up he went to make his report to the skipper.

This was bad news indeed, especially for the unfortunate men who were
compelled by dire necessity to toil unceasingly at the back-breaking
labour of working the pumps; but I felt no apprehension as to our
ultimate safety. Five inches of water per hour was a formidable gain
for a leak to make in spite of all the pumping and baling that could be
accomplished, yet it would take so many hours at that rate to reduce the
frigate to a water-logged condition that ere the arrival of that moment
the gale would certainly blow itself out, the labouring and straining of
the ship would cease, the leak would be