ars, and have never seen
anything to be compared with it. If you get through this you need never
be afraid of another; not if you live to be white-headed!"

After Jack Moore had gone up Mr. Timmins and the captain came down by
turns. Each took a cup of cocoa. They said but few words to the boys,
and were indeed almost too much exhausted by the struggle through which
they had gone to be able to speak. The boys gathered again under the lee
of the poop and watched the scene. It had changed considerably; the wind
seemed as violent as ever, but the sea was no longer kept in subjection
to it, and was now tossing itself in a wild and confused manner.

Another half hour and it had settled in some sort of regularity, and was
sweeping before the wind in deep trough-like waves with steep sides,
resembling those to which Jack had been accustomed in Sea Reach, on a
gigantic scale. Soon again these were broken up, and were succeeded by a
wild tumultuous sea like a boiling cauldron. The vessel was thrown
violently from side to side, taking water over, now on one beam now on
the other, and at times shaking from blows as if she had struck upon a
rock. So sharp and sudden were her movements that the lads could not
keep their feet, and again made their way into the cabin. Even here it
was necessary to shout in order to be heard.

"What an extraordinary sea, Jim! I never saw anything like it before."

"That is what it's from," Jim replied, pointing to the tell-tale compass
hanging from the beams overhead.

Jack glanced at it. "Why, we are running due south!"

"Aye; and I expect we have been two or three times round the compass
already. That is what makes this frightful broken sea."

"Well, as long as we keep on running round and round," Jack said, "there
is no fear of our running against the land anywhere."

Jim was further advanced in the study of navigation. "You forget," he
said, "the centre of the cyclone is moving along all the time, and
though we may go round and round the centre we are moving in the same
direction as the cyclone is going, whatever that may be."

For hours the storm raged without the slightest signs of abatement. The
sea was now terrific; the waist of the ship was full of water. Green
seas swept over the vessel's bows, carrying everything before them, and
pouring aft burst open the cabin door and deluged the cabin. By turns
the boys made their way to the door and looked out.

"Come out, you fellows!" Jim Tu