nslaught of the terrific forces arrayed against her.

CHAPTER FOUR.

WE FALL IN WITH AND CAPTURE A SCHOONER.

The air was thick with scud-water, so thick, indeed, that it was like
fog, it being impossible to see farther than some twenty fathoms from
the boat. This scud-water swept horizontally along in a perfect deluge,
and stung like shot when, by way of experiment, I exposed one of my
hands to it. As for the wind, it was like an invisible wall driving
along; it was simply impossible to stand up against it; it scourged the
surface of the ocean into a level plain of white froth, which was torn
away and hurled along like a shower of bullets. Our sea anchor
fortunately maintained a sufficient hold upon the water to keep the gig
riding head to wind, but that was as much as it could do; with the
painter strained taut for its whole length, the boat was driving away to
leeward, stern-first, at a speed of--according to my estimate--fully
seven miles an hour! And it was, perhaps, a fortunate thing for us that
such was the case; for had we been riding to a sea anchor powerful
enough, and sunk deep enough in the water to have held us nearly
stationary, I believe we should have been swamped within five minutes of
the outburst of the hurricane. Even as it was, and despite all the
precautions that we had taken to make our canvas covering perfectly
secure, the wind tugged at it and beat upon it with such vehement fury
that I momentarily expected to see it torn bodily off the boat and go
driving away to leeward in tatters. Probably the thorough soaking that
it almost instantly received--and which caused the fabric to shrink up
and strain still tighter than it was before--may have had something to
do with the stubborn resistance that it offered to the gale. Be that as
it may, it held intact; and to that circumstance I attribute the fact
that the gig was not instantly swamped. But no woven fabric, however
stout,--scarcely wood itself,--could long withstand such a furious
pelting of scud-water as our sails were now enduring, and in about ten
minutes the water began to drip through, first in single drops, here and
there, then in a few small streams, that rapidly increased in number
until there seemed in the thick darkness to be hundreds of them; for in
endeavouring to avoid one stream we only succeeded in encountering two
or three more. To add to the unpleasantness of the situation, it was
impossible for us to light the lan