e land sharks, but--"

"Not on this ship!" cried Hope promptly.

"Glad to have my fears relieved," flashing a glance at her.

"And, if you'll let me, I was going to say storm, or pestilence,"
continued Bess in a resigned tone.

"Well, I stopped worrying over that when my sick man kindly refrained
from developing smallpox, or ship fever," said Carnegie, sinking down
upon a cushion between Bess and Faith. "I was anxious for a day or two,
though, and so was our surgeon."

"And he is quite well again?" asked Mrs. Vanderhoff.

"Convalescing, thank you. We consider him entirely out of--Ah! that was
vivid."

He referred to a flash of lightning that seemed to rend the heavens,
followed by a terrific report that made the girls cower close together.

"There _is_ going to be a storm," exclaimed Mr. Lawrence, coining close
to the group. "I would not wonder if it is a fierce one, too. There has
been a strangeness in the air for the past half hour, as the girls have
remarked. Shall we go inside?"

"Oh, not yet," said Mrs. Vanderhoff, "What a delicious little breeze!"

She turned to catch it full in the face, and gasped as she pointed to the
horizon. At the same instant the lookout sounded a warning, echoed by a
quick command from the bridge, and instantly all was activity on board.
Mr. Malcolm, as he hurried past the group, called out,

"Run for the saloon! It's a cyclone," and there was an immediate
stampede below, while the Hindu boys ran nimbly about the decks, stowing
away chairs and furling awnings.

Our girls sought shelter with the rest, in the main saloon, and amid its
brilliant lights and merry company could scarcely believe in that one
swift, southward glance at the strange fast-coming gloom, under which the
waves were beginning to seethe, in the distance. There had been one
appalling cloud driving upwards in their very faces, with pall-black
centers, and edges of cold gray that seemed to curl and writhe like giant
lips, intense with scorn and rage.

But sound remained to them, if sight was removed. As they heard the
shriek of the fierce, whirling blasts, the rush and hiss of astonished
waves whipped into terrible activity, the creaking of beams and timbers
suddenly strained to their utmost capacity, the flap and rattle of sails
furled with lightning rapidity, and, above all else, the increasing roar,
indescribably awful, that was mingled of electricity set free into wide
spaces and vapor pent into d