At its setting the sun had a diminished diameter and an expiring brown, rayless glow, as if millions of centuries elapsing since the morning had brought it near its end.  A dense bank of cloud became visible to the northward; it had a sinister dark olive tint, and lay low and motionless upon the sea, resembling a solid obstacle in the path of the ship.  She went floundering towards it like an exhausted creature driven to its death.  The coppery twilight retired slowly, and the darkness brought out overhead a swarm of unsteady, big stars, that, as if blown upon, flickered exceedingly and seemed to hang very near the earth.  At eight o’clock Jukes went into the chart-room to write up the ship’s log.

He copies neatly out of the rough-book the number of miles, the course of the ship, and in the column for “wind” scrawled the word “calm” from top to bottom of the eight hours since noon.  He was exasperated by the continuous, monotonous rolling of the ship.  The heavy inkstand would slide away in a manner that suggested perverse intelligence in dodging the pen.  Having written in the large space under the head of “Remarks” “Heat very oppressive,” he stuck the end of the penholder in his teeth, pipe fashion, and mopped his face carefully.

“Ship rolling heavily in a high cross swell,” he began again, and commented to himself, “Heavily is no word for it.”  Then he wrote:  “Sunset threatening, with a low bank of clouds to N. and E. Sky clear overhead.”

Sprawling over the table with arrested pen, he glanced out of the door, and in that frame of his vision he saw all the stars flying upwards between the teakwood jambs on a black sky.  The whole lot took flight together and disappeared, leaving only a blackness flecked with white flashes, for the sea was as black as the sky and speckled with foam afar.  The stars that had flown to the roll came back on the return swing of the ship, rushing downwards in their glittering multitude, not of fiery points, but enlarged to tiny discs brilliant with a clear wet sheen.

Jukes watched the flying big stars for a moment, and then wrote:  “8 P.M.  Swell increasing.  Ship labouring and taking water on her decks.  Battened down the coolies for the night.  Barometer still falling.”  He paused, and thought to himself, “Perhaps nothing whatever’ll come of it.”  And then he closed resolutely his entries:  “Every appearance of a typhoon coming on.”

On going out he had to stand aside, and Captain MacWhirr strode over the doorstep without saying a word or making a sign.

“Shut the door, Mr. Jukes, will you?” he cried from within.

Jukes turned back to do so, muttering ironically:  “Afraid to catch cold, I suppose.”  It was his watch below, but he yearned for communion with his kind; and he remarked cheerily to the second mate:  “Doesn’t look so bad, after all—­does it?”

The second mate was marching to and fro on the bridge, tripping down with small steps one moment, and the next climbing with difficulty the shifting slope of the deck.  At the sound of Jukes’ voice he stood still, facing forward, but made no reply.