r, I saw, with terror unspeakable,
a thin blue wavering smoke-wreath, float upward from the floor, and,
after curling feebly about the truncated mast, disappear in the clear
sunlit atmosphere, again to arise from the same point, that of the
juncture of the mast and deck, creeping through some invisible crevice,
as it seemed to form itself eternally in filmy folds, and successively
elude the eye as soon as it shaped to sight. I understood him then.
There was fire in the heart of the ship, and I knew the hold was filled
with cotton; it was smouldering slowly, and our safety was a question of
time alone!

Pale, transfixed, frozen, I lifted my eyes to the man, who seemed to
represent my fate for the moment. "Was it the lightning?" I asked, after
a pause, during which his pitying eye rested on me drearily. "Did the
fire occur in that way?"

"Yes, the lightning it was; and God's hand, which sent the shaft direct,
alone can deliver us."

I seemed to hear the voice of Bertie speak these words. Things grew
confused; I wavered as I stood, lifted my hand to my head; the face of
Christian Garth grew large and dim, then faded utterly. I knew no more
until I found myself seated on a coil of rope, leaning against the
bulwark, while a young girl stood beside me, fanning and bathing my
face, and offering me a glass of water.

"You are better now," she said, kindly; "the man at the wheel called me
as I was passing, and pointed out your condition, and I led you here,
and ran for water. Being up so early is apt to disagree with some
people."

"What are these people crawling about the deck for? Is all hope over, or
was it only a dream?" I asked.

"Oh, you are quite wild yet from your swoon; it is only the calkers
stopping up the seams, one of the captain's queer whims they say; but
how they are to dance to-night, those _magnificos_ I mean, without
ruining their slippers with this pitch, I cannot see! Thank Goodness! I
belong to a church, and am not of this party, and don't care on my own
account, nor does the captain, I believe. I was placed under his care at
Savannah, and I suppose it is only to stop the ball that--"

She was interrupted by the approach of the officer under discussion, but
he passed us gloomily and went on to inspect the workmen so unseasonably
employed, as it seemed, in a labor that, save in a case of long voyages,
is always performed in port.

His melancholy air, and the preoccupation of his manner, confirmed m