The Argosy — page 164: what you’re looking at

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

150 ~ In a West India Hurricane. Tee Ancow. it was surrounded. However, all this ended in nothing more than a squall and a shower, and very soon all was fair again. ‘“¢*T think, my dear sir,’ I said, ‘that your hurncane is roing to play you false ; why, I’m afraid you'll not get off with anything so bad as a gale! “Don’t be hasty,’ he replied, ‘I’ve got twelve hours to the good yet.’ ‘ Towards ten o’clock it was again perfectly calm, and the stars shone over our heads, bright and clear; but in the north-west there was an ominous bank of black vapour, out of which, every now and again, the hightning burst in vivid forks. “Shortly after, it seemed as though a pall had been thrown over us, and the rolling of the distant thunder and the continuous flashing of the hghtning was fearfully grand. ‘About eleven o’clock the wind had increased to a stiff gale, and Mr. Walkingshaw, having made up his mind for a hurricane, called up the negroes, and had all the doors and windows thoroughly fastened, and strongly barricaded. “Inside we sat, a pale and anxious group, for no one thought of | going to bed ; outside the scene was every minute growing grander and grander ; the tempestuous raging of the wind had increased to such an extent that every now and again the house was shaken to its foundations, and the roll of the thunder and noise of the rushing wind was like thousands of heavy vans rattling over the London stones; while the heavens, which were canopied with apparently solid masses of black clouds, were illuminated with incessant flames of lightning. Not hke the short-lived flashes, such as we have in our temperate clime, but quivering sheets of blazing hght, which skimmed along the surface of the sea, which was boiling like a cauldron, and were accompanied by forks of electric fire of the most surpassing brilliancy, darting about in all directions. ‘Anything more terrifically sublime cannot be conceived. Every minute the violence of the wind increased, the rain was descending in torrents. The noise of the conflict was something past all concep- tion. It seemed as though squadrons of unseen spirits were contending in the air, so mighty was the commotion, and so wildly did the wind shnek and rage above our heads. ‘‘In truth, the scene was one of extraordinary fascination, and I was powerless to do other than sit and gaze at it, and while I did so I could only commune with my own heart and tremble. I did not, however, _ suffer from fear, in the ordinary sense of the word. My mind was too much occupied by the magnitude of the phenomena passing before my eyes for that. No, spite of the imminent danger we were in, my mind was filled with awe and reverence, and my heart ‘was stirred to its inmost core. ECOMmniclooolkks G GO)