“But it wasn’t a mistake, Joy,” replied Faraday, earnestly. “I am as certain I saw that ship twice as I am that I stand here.”
“Did it look like a lightship?” queried a smaller lad.
“I guess so, Nanny. The first luff said I described one. Whew! it was a peculiar experience. My flesh is creepy yet. I thought we would plump into her for certain.”
“Tell us all about it, old fellow,” chorused several plebes of the watch.
“It bad here,” spoke up Trolley. “Me think we blow away pretty soon. This one lulu of a gale. It peacherine.”
“Right you are, Trolley,” laughed Clif. “The strength of the wind is only equaled by the force of your slang. We will take refuge in the lee of the bulwarks down below.”
The rest scurried to the main deck, but he remained a moment clinging to the railing, and searchingly swept the sea with his eyes.
“I can’t make it out to save me,” he murmured. “I was not asleep or dreaming. I saw that vessel as sure as fate. But why didn’t the others see it, too? Spendly was on watch on the other side of the deck. He—— Why, by Jove! probably he was asleep! It’s certainly mysterious.”
The old Monongahela pitched and rolled heavily in the seas. The gale shrieked unceasingly through the taut rigging. Monster waves, wind blown and angry, leaped against the stout wooden hull as if eager to drag it apart. Flying masses of vapor, dank and salty, scudded through the air, and in the midst of it all the driving rain poured with a sleet-like sharpness against the faces of the watch on deck.