the mate again began to make his way forward. He passed the boys without
a word, for the loudest shout would have been inaudible in the howling
of the wind. He stopped at the main-shrouds again, the axe descended and
the mainmast went over the side. The relief from the weight of the mast
and the pressure of the wind upon it was immediate; the _Wild Wave_
rose with a surge and her lee-rail appeared above the surface, then she
rose no further.

Mr. Timmins looked back again at the captain, but the latter made no
sign. He could see that the pressure of the wind upon the foremast was
beginning to pay the vessel's head off before it; as it did so she
slowly righted until, when fairly before the wind, she was upon a level
keel. Then there was a dull explosion heard even above the gale, and the
fore-topsail split into ribbons. But the ship was now before the gale,
and was scudding, from the effect of the wind on the bare pole and hull
alone, at great speed through the water. As soon as she had righted the
lads threw off their lashings, but still clung tight to the rail, and
struggled aft till they stood under shelter of the poop.

"This is something like!" Jim roared at the top of his voice into Jack's
ear. Even then his words could scarcely be heard.

Jack nodded. At present, even had conversation been possible, he would
have had no inclination for it, for he felt stunned and bewildered. It
had all taken place in ten minutes. It was but that time since the ship
had been lying motionless on a still ocean. Now she was rushing, with
one mast only standing, before a furious gale, and had had the narrowest
possible escape from destruction. As yet the sea had scarce begun to
rise, but seemed flattened under the terrific pressure of the wind,
which scooped hollows in it and drove the water before it in fine spray.

Jack had read in the papers about tornadoes in America, and how houses
were sometimes bodily lifted with their contents and carried long
distances, and how everything above the surface was swept away as if a
scythe had passed over it. He had heard these accounts discussed by the
fishermen, and the general opinion in Leigh was that there was mighty
little truth in them. The Leigh men thought they knew what a gale was,
and what it could do. They knew that chimney-pots and tiles could be
carried some distance with the wind, that arms of trees could be twisted
off, and that an empty boat could be carried a considerable dist