ing, and the huge sail was presently crackling away like tissue
paper to which a lighted match has been applied, large pieces of the
burning material being whirled in the air.

The heat now became unbearable, and Captain Billings, much to his grief,
saw that the time had come for him to abandon the ship.

"We must leave her, Leigh," said he to me, with as much emotion as
another person might have displayed when wishing a last farewell to some
dearly-loved friend or relative. "There is no good in stopping by the
old barquey any longer, for we can't help her out of her trouble, and
the boats may be stove in by the falling mainmast if they remain
alongside much longer. Poor old ship! we've sailed many a mile
together, she and I; and now, to think that, crippled by that gale and
almost having completed her v'yage, she should be burnt like a log of
firewood off Cape Horn!"

"Never mind, sir," said I, sympathisingly. "It has not happened through
any fault of yours."

"No, my lad, I don't believe it has, for a cargo o' coal is a ticklish
thing to take half round the world; as more vessels are lost in carrying
it than folks suppose! However, this is the last we'll ever see of the
old _Esmeralda_, so far as standing on her deck goes; still, I tell you
what, Leigh, you may possibly live to be a much older man than I am, but
you'll never come across a ship easier to handle in a gale, or one that
would go better on a bowline!"

"No, sir, I don't think I shall," I replied to this panegyric on the
doomed vessel, quite appreciating all the skipper's feelings of regret
at her destruction; but just then the flames with a roar rushed up the
main hatch, approaching towards the poop every moment nearer and nearer.

This at once recalled Captain Billings from the past to the present.

"Have you got everything aboard the boats?" he sang out in his customary
voice to Mr Macdougall, his tones as firm and clear as if he had not
been a moment before almost on the point of crying. "Are all the
provisions and water in?"

"Aye, aye, an' stoowed awa', too, Cap'en," answered the mate, to whom
had been entrusted the execution of all the necessary details. "A very
thin's aboord, and naething forgot, I reecken."

"Then it's time we were aboard, too," said the skipper. "Boatswain,
muster the hands!"

Jorrocks didn't have to tap on the deck with a marlinspike now to call
them, in the way he used to summon the watch below to reef topsails