Never in their lives had they been so terrified. Several times the water rushed down into the cabin, as the waves broke over the deck; and Captain Dare looked down upon them, long enough to ask if they were drowned out.
"Hear the thunder!" exclaimed Ralph, as the heavy roll and crash sounded overhead, and the cabin was lighted almost continually with flashes of lurid light.
Ben made no reply, but buried his head under the blanket.
"It's queer I don't feel so scared as I did," said Ralph soberly. "I feel something as Captain Dare does--that after all we are in God's hand. Hear that peal! It seemed to roll right over the deck."
Ben made no answer, but cowered still closer under the blanket.
The rain now descended in perfect sheets upon the deck; and although the cabin door was closed, the water poured down through the cracks, and came in around the small windows above the berths, adding to the discomfort of the boys, who could not escape the drenching there without stepping into the water with which the cabin floor was covered.
The rain fell as if another flood had commenced; and the wind had no mercy on the little vessel--breaking her yards and snapping her topmasts; and unreefing with goblin fingers the topsails, it whipped them to tatters.
At length the thunder ceased to mutter, and after midnight the rain fell no more; but the wind continued to blow, and the little vessel to run before it.
It was sunrise when the captain opened the cabin door and looked down.
"Well, boys, get up and give thanks! The little vessel has weathered the toughest kind of a gale. We are all safe now."