“Yes, certainly,” replied the mate; “we’ve made good use of the time, too.”
“Aye, that we have,” replied the captain. “I fixed our position last night by a couple of lunars.”
“And I suppose it corroborates your observation of yesterday, eh?”
“Pretty nearly,” said Captain Miles; “calculating for the distance we’ve run since, I should think we’re somewhere about 30 degrees North and 52 degrees West.”
“Well, that’s strange!” exclaimed Mr Marline. “We’ve got to the limit of the north-east trade without having once the benefit of it from the day we started, the winds having been south-east and southerly till they shifted round to the westwards!”
“So they have,” said the captain; “still, that has been all the more lively for us. But I don’t like this change brewing up. Look at the clouds now!”
“Ha, they’re getting up at last!” replied the other. “I see you were right, the change will come from the eastwards.”
Up to now it had been a beautifully bright morning, the sky without a scrap of vapour to obscure its lucent expanse, and the sea lit up with golden sunshine that made it appear bluer somehow or other; but, even while Captain Miles and Mr Marline were speaking, a low bank of cloud arose along the eastern horizon, and this, spreading gradually up towards the zenith, soon shut out the half-risen sun and his rays, casting a sombre tinge at the same time on the ocean below.
“All hands shorten sail!” shouted the captain, and the studding-sail halliards being let go by the run, the Josephine, which a moment before had looked like a bird with outspread wings, had these latter clipped off in a jiffey, the light sails bagging with the wind like balloons as they were hauled down; and, soon afterwards, the booms projecting from the yard-arms on which they had been rigged out, were sent below and laid with the other spare spars along the bulwarks in the waist.
While the crew were busy at this task, the strong breeze, which but a short time before had filled our canvas, gradually died away until there did not seem to be a puff of air stirring, the larger sails now hanging loose or else flapping idly against the masts.