"Think it'll get worse?"
"No. Glass is rising."
But it continued to blow with unabated fury, so far as the boys could see, for several hours, but finally, along toward noon, they could tell that the violence of the wind was decreasing, and a little later the sun peeped out from behind the clouds, just as a gong struck telling them that dinner was ready.
"So we aren't going to miss a meal after all," Bob laughed as they started down the stairway.
"But I'll tell you now that I was worried for a bit, and so was the captain," their uncle told them. "The beginning of that storm had all the earmarks of a rip snorter at first. I've been through them, and I know the signs, but we must have just struck the edge of it."
"And it was some edge at that," Jack laughed as he sat down at the table.
Although the boat was still pitching too violently to permit of anything of a liquid nature to be placed on the table there was plenty of solid food, and all were hungry.
When they returned to the deck, the rain had ceased and the wind had slackened to a stiff breeze, but the waves were still running high enough to cause the Valkyrie to pitch rather violently as she slid from crest to trough.
"She didn't stand on her tail though," Jack shouted to Captain Ole who was still at the wheel.
"An' you can thank your lucky stars that she didn't," he called back.