“Shall I reef, or furl?” demanded Wilder, standing with the trumpet at his lips, ready to issue the necessary order.

“Hold, sir; another minute will give us an opening.”

The lieutenant paused; for he was not slow to see that now, indeed, the veil was about to be drawn from their real situation.  The smoke, which had lain upon their very decks, as though pressed down by the superincumbent weight of the atmosphere first began to stir; was then seen eddying among the masts; and, finally, whirled wildly away before a powerful current of air.  The view was, indeed, now all before them.

In place of the glorious sun, and that bright, blue canopy which had lain above them a short half-hour before, the heavens were clothed in one immense black veil.  The sea reflected the portentous colour, looking dark and angrily.  The waves had already lost their regular rise and fall, and were tossing to and fro, as if awaiting the power that was to give them direction and greater force.  The flashes from the heavens were not in quick succession; but the few that did break upon the gloominess of the scene came in majesty, and with dazzling brightness.  They were accompanied by the terrific thunder of the tropics in which it is scarcely profanation to fancy that the voice of One who made the universe is actually speaking to the creatures of his hand.  On every side, was the appearance of a fierce and dangerous struggle in the elements.  The vessel of the Rover was running lightly before a breeze, which had already come fresh and fitful from the cloud, with her sails reduced, and her people coolly, but actively, employed in repairing the damages of the fight.

Not a moment was to be lost in imitating the example of the wary freebooters.  The head of the “Dart” was hastily, and happily, got in a direction contrary to the breeze; and, as she began to follow the course taken by the “Dolphin,” an attempt was made to gather her torn and nearly useless causes to the yards.  But precious minutes had been lost in the smoky canopy, that might never be regained.  The sea changed its colour from a dark green to a glittering white; and then the fury of the gust was heard rushing along the water with fearful rapidity, and with a violence that could not he resisted.

“Be lively, men!” shouted Bignall himself, in the exigency in which his vessel was placed; “Roll up the cloth; in with it all—­leave not a rag to the squall!  ’Fore George, Mr Wilder, but this wind is not playing with us; cheer up the men to their work; speak to them cheerily, sir!”

“Furl away!” shouted Wilder.  “Cut, if too late, work away with knives and teeth—­down, every man of you, down—­down for your lives, all!”