Laura Brayton — page 159: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

150 3 LAURA BRAYTON. stake the bulwarks, the old seamen waited for the storm. Not long either was his waiting now. Swiftly < as | if lifted with a mighty hand, the inky cloud vail swept up along the sky, the very sea seemed to oroan and a sickening heat to fill the atmosphere. The porpoises were no longer seen rising here and there, but some screaming sea-birds flew as if fright- ened through the air, while the seamen, now com- prehending the wisdom at which in their before- time labor they had grumbled, stood silent and awe- stricken, watching the oncoming of the tempest. On swept the gale, and the ship, rocking no more, seemed to be pressed right into the wall of waters, never to come out again. Away, snapping hike weak reeds, flew the slim top-gallant yards and masts; one moment the small stout stay-sail for- ward held the full breath of the blast, then even while it had served its purpose and canted the ship’s head aright, it burst from its roping and flew with the foam-flakes far away. : | The mate who had gone below to dream, as he said, was no dreamer now, but like a brave, true- hearted man, as he was, he sprang aft to the weather helm to aid the old seaman who had his shoulder to the spokes to heave the craft fairly before the wind. _ And now she has headway, she rights, for she is off before it with a speed which, were there no change, would soon carry her far from the peril of — rock and sand. _. The land is no longer seen, not even the sky; it is blackness overhead, below, and all around. “How do you like it, pilot?” asked the captain, as the ship, all snug, forged off the land. “We are safe for the present,” replied the pilot, jf ; Eomicbooks.co