During the brief space of time in which the zigazag stream of fire from the vault of heaven momentarily lit up the surroundings of the ship, which it did with a brightness that eclipsed the light of day, Mr Meldrum could see the vessel tumbling about amid a chaotic mass of waves, which it was no exaggeration to term mountains high, as if she were in the vortex of a whirlpool; while dense opaque black clouds hovered over her, vomiting forth wind, apparently from every quarter of the horizon, the gusts tearing at the ship with harpy-like clutches, as if they would rend her to pieces—she, like a poor human thing racked with pain, labouring and groaning, and bending this way and that to escape the relentless wind, so well aided by the clutching billows from below that leaped up to engulf the vessel when they themselves were not absolutely flattened to the surface of the water, as they were sometimes, by the force of the hurricane.
The scene was literally awful!
The next moment all was darkness again; with the night black as Erebus, and Mr Meldrum unable, as the mate had said, to see his hand before his face.
Captain Dinks, however, had noted his arrival on deck; and approached him without being seen.
“I advise you to go below, Mr Meldrum,” said he, “you can do no good here, nor any of us, indeed, until morning, when I hope we’ll have better weather. It’s a terrible night, the worst I have ever seen at sea in all my time!”
“Aye, terrible,” replied the other, shouting in the ear of the captain, but, as he was facing the wind, his voice seemed to the latter only like a whisper. “I’ll take your advice, as I see I could be of no use; still, if I can be of any service, mind you call me!”
“Aye, aye,” said Captain Dinks, “you go down and go to sleep. We are all in God’s hands now, though I’ll do all that man can—good night!”
“Good night,” said Mr Meldrum; and he then went below again to give what report he could to Kate, who was waiting anxiously for his expected reappearance, as he had said he should not be gone long when he left her.
She had been certain the ship was in great danger; and she now read the confirmation of her worst fears in her father’s face.
“Oh, papa!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms round his neck as soon as he came down the companion, without waiting to hear a word from him. “I thought so, I thought so!”