"But at the same time, Mary," continued the Captain, "you mustn't neglect to keep a sharp lookout all around, for the wind may come from some unexpected quarter."
"Don't be afraid, father dear," said Mary, smiling up at him bravely; "you know I've been at sea before."
"Yes, my girl, I know; but you've never had quite so much responsibility on your shoulders. There, now, I'll go below and lie down just to please you."
Captain Kent paused a moment at the door of his cabin and shook his head.
"It's a strange thing to leave a young girl like that on watch at such a time, but what else can I do? She knows more in a minute than those muttonheads forward do in a month."
And with that thought in his mind the Captain went below and tried to snatch a brief rest before the coming of the storm. Mary, who was well accustomed to the wild movements of a vessel's deck, stood balanced with her shapely feet well apart and her hands clasped behind her back. With her knitted woollen cap pulled down over her ears, a big muffler around her neck, a heavy pea-jacket, and a plain skirt, she looked not unlike a picture of one of those old Dutch skippers that one sees in pictures of the days when the Netherlands were a power on the high-seas. The sharp frosty air made her cheeks as red as roses, and her brown eyes sparkled like stars. The man at the wheel, who had little enough to do in such a villanous calm beyond keeping the spokes from jumping, gazed at her in admiration, and the men forward nodded their heads approvingly at one another as they saw the Captain go below.
"Sorra's the weather we'll be afther havin' afoor noight," said Pat Maginn, "an' it's good the Cap'n goes to resht lavin' the foinist mate oi iver see on watch. But oi wish thim fellies that's sick beyant war on the deck too."
At four o'clock in the afternoon, just at the beginning of the first dog-watch, Mary saw a sudden glow of ghastly light in the hard spot in the southeast. Springing to the head of the companionway, she called down into the cabin:
"Father! Father! It's coming!"
The next moment Captain Kent hastened on deck, and after a quick glance said: