onger than usual
dashed against the bow of the ship. In the intervals of rest the sailors
at the helm talked with one another.

"What a gale! It's impossible for us ever to reach port again."

"We came near sticking fast in the clouds just now, the waves flung us
up so high."

"Lord help us! The thunderbolts are falling like ripe pears, one of us
will be hit presently."

"Hush, don't you see the St. Elmo's fire yonder at the mast-head?" asked
Philip, the helmsman.

"St. George preserve us!" whispered the others in horror. "That means
evil. The St. Elmo's fire usually appears only on ships devoted to
destruction. See how it dances!"

"Mind your helm!" shouted the captain, but it was too late; while the
men were staring at the electrical phenomena hovering around the
mast-head, a huge wave approached the ship, a wave which resembled a
transparent mountain-chain in motion. Every effort to put the ship about
proved futile, the vast surge, higher than the highest mast-head, rolled
nearer, its top crested with foam. The men clung to the rigging and
bulwarks. Suddenly the King Solomon rose more rapidly, tossed upward on
the towering wave, and the next moment lay on her side with her masts in
the water and wave after wave sweeping over her decks. In a few minutes
the ship righted again, the water rolling from her as it drips from the
plumage of a swan, and the crew, drenched to the skin, returned to their
tasks.

"See! The St. Elmo's fire is still shining at the mast-head!" cried
Philip, "if it were not kindled by the devil, that flood of water would
have put it out."

"Those stormy petrels suspect something wrong, too, they follow us
everywhere."

"Jack says he saw the spectre ship last night."

"Is that true, Jack?"

"Why should I say so, if I hadn't seen it? You were all asleep, I stood
alone at the helm. Suddenly, from the distance, the form of a ship moved
toward us. It seemed scarcely to touch the water, and was sailing
against the wind. Shadows that looked like men were moving about her
deck as if pulling on the ropes, and a misty shape, like the captain,
glided to and fro. Terrified, I hailed the apparition, and suddenly the
whole vision vanished, but I heard distinctly, above the whistling of
the wind and the plashing of the waves, the flapping of the ropes
against the mast of the spectre ship."

"That means mischief."

The sailors gazed timidly at the cloud-veiled horizon, as they usually
do when gh