A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 71: what you’re looking at

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68 A QUEER RACE. him sleep as long as he hked; and when he voluntarily ~ came to relieve me, I had been at my post nearly five hours. ‘‘Why didn’t you call me?’ he said, reproachtfully. ‘You must be both tired and hungry. Go and get something to eat, and then turn in for an hour or two. I don’t think we shall either of us get much sleep to- night.” “Why?” ‘‘There is going to be a change of weather. ‘I'he glass is going down fast, and clouds are gathering to windward, But we shall not get it just yet. When you have had your grub and your sleep, we must reef the foresail. Then we shall be safe, 1 think.” I acted promptly on old T’om’s suggestion, for the air and the work had made me doth hungry and sleepy. When I returned from my snooze, the wind had risen considerably, and blew in fitful gusts; the sun went down red, amid a mass of ominous-looking clouds, and, as Bolsover said, there was every hkelihood of a dirty night. The time had come to reduce our spread of canvas, and the ship being under a patent foretopsail and jib, we lowered and reefed the former withont difficulty. The - boatswain then made all snug, battened down the hatches, and brought a suit of oilskin and a pair of sea-boots for himself, and another for me, put food, water, and grog within reach, and lighted the lanterns. When he had done all that was necessary, or, rather, all that he could, he joined me at the wheel, for, as he said, 1t would take two to steer, and all little enough. And soit proved. The wind rose every moment, and though we had so little sail set, the ship went through the water like an Atlantic liner at full speed. ‘Then it Julled a little, and the rain came down as it only can come down in the tropics, rattling on the deck like discharges of musketry, and tumbling out of the scuppers in cas- cades. From time to time, there came a tremendous clap of thunder; the sky was ablaze with lightning, which brought every spar and rope of the ship into vivid relief, and cast a lurid glow on an angry sea billowed with foam- crested waves. But we were by no means in the center of the storm, else it had gone ill with us; and the rain, Eeom C JOO <q (E(0)