I would rather keep her under headway," said Arthur, "or how could we
escape, if one of them should move down upon us!"

"What can we do, then?" exclaimed Max; "we can't sail in the teeth of
the wind."

"I am for going about to the left again, and steering as near the wind
as possible," said Arthur; "the one on that side is farthest north."

This was the course which the natives had already adopted, and they were
now steering nearly south-west. We immediately followed their example,
and the fore and aft rig of the yawl enabled us to sail nearer the wind
than they could do.

In a few moments the funnel-shaped water-spout, which we had first seen,
had passed off northward, and was at such a distance as to remove all
apprehensions on account of it. Not so, however, with the second; for
hardly had we tacked again, when, notwithstanding that we were to
windward of it, it began to move rapidly towards us.

Its course was not direct and uniform, but it veered now to the right
and now to the left, rendering it difficult for us to decide which way
to steer in order to avoid it.

Arthur sat at the helm, pale, but quite calm and collected, his eyes
steadfastly fixed on the advancing column, while Johnny crouched at his
side, holding fast one of his hands in both his own. Morton held the
sheet and stood ready to shift the sail, as the emergency might require.

Onward it came, towering to the skies, and darkening the ocean with its
impending bulk; soon we could perceive the powerful agitation of the
water far around its base, and within the vortex of its influence: a
dense cloud of spray, thrown off in its rapid revolutions, enveloped its
lower extremity: the rushing sound of the water as it was drawn upward,
was also distinctly audible. And now it seemed to take a straight
course for the canoe. The natives, with the exception of the boy, threw
themselves down in the bottom of the boat in abject terror; it was,
indeed, an appalling spectacle, and calculated to shake the stoutest
heart, to see that vast mass of water, enough as it seemed, to swamp the
navies of the world, suspended so strangely over them.

The Frenchman appeared to be endeavouring to get the natives to make
some exertion, but in vain. He and the boy then seized a couple of
paddles, and made a frantic effort to escape the threatened danger; but
the whirling pillar was almost upon them, and it seemed as though they
were devoted to certain destruction. Th