ing tropical sun for a couple of
days, without apparently advancing an inch on our way northwards towards
San Francisco, our destination, which we were now comparatively near, so
to speak, but still separated by a broad belt of latitude of between
eighteen hundred and two thousand miles--a goodish stretch of water!

I also remember well that Captain Snaggs roared so loudly to the mate
and the mate back to him during their altercation in the cuddy that we
on deck could hear every word they said; for, the night was hot and
close, with never a breath of wind stirring, and the air had that
oppressive and sulphurous feel which it always has when there is thunder
about or some great atmospherical change impending.

The skipper and Mr Flinders were arguing about the ship's course, the
former declaring it to be right, and the latter as vehemently to be
altogether wrong.

The mate, so opposite were their opinions, said that if we sailed on
much longer in the same direction towards which the ship had been
heading before being becalmed, she would be landed high and dry ashore
at Guayaquil; while the skipper, as strongly, protested that we were
already considerably to the northward of the Galapagos Islands.

"Ye're a durned fule, an' a thunderin' pig-headed fule ez well," we
heard the captain say to the other, as he came up the companion, roaring
back behind him; "but, jest to show ye how thunderin' big a fule ye air,
I'll jest let ye hev y'r own way--though, mind ye, if the ship comes to
grief, ye'll hev to bear all the muss."

"I don't mind thet, nary a red cent," boasted the other in his sneering
way. "Guess I've a big enuff pile to hum, out Chicago way, to buy up
ship an' cargy ez well!"

"Guess ye shall hev y'r way, bo!" then yelled out the skipper, calling
at the same time to the helmsman to ease the helm off, as well as to the
watch to brace round the yards; and the light land breeze, just then
coming off from shore, made the _Denver City_ head off at right angles
to her previous course, the wash of water swishing pleasantly past her
bows, as her sails bellied out for a brief spell.

But, not for long.

Within the next half-hour or so the heavens, which had previously been
bright with myriads of stars overhead, became obscured with a thick
darkness, while the slight land breeze slowly died away.

Then, a hoarse, rumbling sound was heard under the sea, and the ship was
violently heaved up and down in a sort of quic