t the jet began to play, with
the result that the proa, instead of touching us, forged slowly past us
to port, and so ahead, with little tongues of flame creeping here and
there about her hull wherever the flaming oil had fallen; Roberts
keeping the jet remorselessly playing upon her until she had shot quite
beyond its reach.

"Thank God, we are well rid of that danger!" I ejaculated; "and, unless
I am greatly mistaken, we shall get a breeze before any of the others
are near enough to attempt the same trick."

"Ay; and here it comes with a vengeance, too! Look there, sir, on our
starboard beam," cried Roberts. "Avast pumping there, you two, and run
the engine away for'ard, out of the way. Stand by the braces fore
and--"

A terrific blaze of lightning at this moment enveloped the ship in a
sheet of living flame, which was accompanied by a simultaneous crash of
thunder that was indescribably dreadful and terrifying by reason of its
awful intensity of sound. It literally stunned me for a few seconds, so
completely that I knew not where I was; and when I recovered my senses I
discovered that the tremendous shock of sound had rendered me stone
deaf, so that I was utterly incapable of hearing anything. Fortunately
for us all, this deafness passed off again in a few minutes; but while
it lasted I found it exceedingly inconvenient and unpleasant.

My first act, on coming to my senses, was to glance instinctively in the
direction indicated by the mate, when a complete transformation in the
appearance of the heavens in that quarter met my anxious gaze. The
heaped-up masses of cloud had there been rent asunder by the power of
the imprisoned wind, revealing a large and rapidly widening patch of
clear sky, with the stars brilliantly shining in the blue-black space;
while beneath it the water was all white with the foam of the
approaching squall.

"Man the port fore-braces!" I shouted at the top of my voice--though
not the slightest sound reached my ear--"round-in smartly, men; well
there; belay! Stand by your topsail halliards, fore and main! Why,
what is this?" as in moving I stumbled over something on the deck that
felt like a human body. I stooped to feel for the object--for the
lightning had entirely ceased since that last baleful flash--and found
that it _was_ indeed a body. Had some one been struck by a bullet
without our having noticed it? I hurriedly called for a lantern; but
before it could be brought the