"Certainly not, captain;" and accordingly the men were ordered to remain in the saloon.
"You can light your pipes there, my lads," Frank said, as they went down, "and make yourselves as comfortable as you can."
The last man had scarcely disappeared when the captain said:
"Look there, Major Mallett," and looking up Frank saw a ball of phosphorescent light, some eighteen inches in diameter, upon the masthead.
"Plenty of electricity about," he said, cheerfully. "If they are all as harmless as that it won't hurt us."
But as he ceased speaking there was a crash of thunder overhead that made the whole vessel quiver, and at the same instant a flash of lightning, so vivid, that for a minute or two Frank felt absolutely blinded. Without a moment's intermission, flash followed flash, while the crashes of thunder were incessant.
"I think that plan of yours has saved the ship, sir," the captain said, when, after five minutes, the lightning ceased as suddenly as it had begun. "I am sure that a score of those flashes struck the mast, and yet no damage has been done to it, so far as I could see by the last flash. Are you all right there, Purvis?"
"All right," the mate replied. "Scared a bit, I fancy. I know I am myself, but none the worse for it."
"It is coming now, sir," the captain said. "Listen."
Frank could hear a low moaning noise, rapidly growing louder, and then he saw a white line on the water coming along with extraordinary velocity.