three
men appeared to be sitting more than waist-deep in the water.

"Lower the mainsail!" shouted the hermit, for the noise of wind and sea
had become deafening.

Nigel obeyed and held on to the flapping sheet. The hermit had at the
same moment let go the foresail, the flapping of which he controlled by
a rope-tackle arranged for the purpose. He then grasped his
single-blade paddle and aided Moses in keeping her head to wind and sea.
For a few minutes this was all that could be done. Then the first
violence of the squall passed off, allowing the deck of the little craft
to appear above the tormented water. Soon the waves began to rise.

The mere keeping of the canoe's head to wind required all the attention
of both master and man, while Nigel sat waiting for orders and looking
on with mingled feelings of surprise and curiosity. Of course they were
all three wet to the skin, for the water had got up their sleeves and
down their necks; but, being warm, that mattered little, and the oiled
aprons before mentioned, being securely fastened round their waists,
effectually prevented any of it from getting below save the little that
passed through the thickness of their own garments.

No word was spoken for at least a quarter of an hour, during which time,
although they rose buoyantly on the water, the waves washed continually
over the low-lying deck. As this deck was flush with the gunwale, or
rather, had no gunwale at all, the water ran off it as it does off a
whale's back.

Then there came a momentary lull.

"Now, Moses--'bout ship!" shouted Van der Kemp. "Stand by, Nigel!"

"Ay, ay, sir."

Although the canoe was long--and therefore unfitted to turn quickly--the
powerful strokes of the two paddles in what may be called
counteracting-harmony brought the little craft right round with her
stern to the waves.

"Hoist away, Nigel! We must run right before it now."

Up went the mainsail, the tiny foresail bulged out at the same moment,
and away they went like the driving foam, appearing almost to leap from
wave to wave. All sense of danger was now overwhelmed in Nigel's mind
by that feeling of excitement and wild delight which accompanies some
kinds of rapid motion. This was, if possible, intensified by the
crashing thunder which now burst forth and the vivid lightning which
began to play, revealing from time to time the tumultuous turmoil as if
in clearest moonlight, only to plunge it again in still blacker