ike a child's kite whose string
has parted and let it go to grief, tumbling down from its soaring
height, and disappearing in the dim distance to leeward, where the
clouds had already vanished.

The ship was now only under her close-reefed main-topsail and reefed
foresail, all the rest of her canvas having been taken off her by
degrees; still, she laboured so greatly, and got such a list to
leeward--with the topmasts bent like fishing rods under the strain,
while the weather shrouds were as taut as fiddle-strings, and those on
the port side hung limp and loose through the stretching of the
rigging--that the skipper saw she would not stand driving any more. The
only thing now to be done, he thought, was to lay her to, so that, as he
could not get her any further on her forward journey, she should not, at
all events, lose the progress she had already made save by leeway drift,
which of course was unavoidable.

"Ease down the helm!" he cried to the two men, who were now necessary at
the wheel, while the fore-tack was boarded, the lee braces hauled aft,
and the mainyard braced in, when the ship was brought up to the wind,
bowing and scraping, and taking in tons of water over the fo'c's'le, in
this operation, that washed everybody off their legs in the waist,
bundling them away to leeward in a bunch.

For a time the _Esmeralda_ now behaved very well, the mizen trysail
being set to steady her, although, being hove to on the starboard tack,
she drifted sideways, before the fierce north-west gale, making as much
leeway towards the south and east as if she had been running free; but,
presently, there was a loud crack heard forwards, and Haxell, the
carpenter, came up to the skipper on the poop, looking even more serious
than usual as he crawled aft under shelter of the bulwarks.

"The foremast is sprung, sir," said he in a melancholy tone of voice, as
if he were announcing the fact of his just going to be hanged.

"Is it serious?" asked Captain Billings.

"Aye, aye, sir, it's all that," replied Haxell. "There's a big flaw
close under the slings of the foreyard. It won't stand the pressure of
that foresail ag'in it much longer, Cap'; and it'll be safe to carry
away presently."

"Then we must relieve it before that happens," said the skipper, giving
orders for us to furl the foresail and hoist the fore-topmast staysail
in its place, for that would serve to keep control of the helm, he
thought. The ship required some he