"Well, sir," he replied, "that is not a very easy question to answer. It has been gathering ever since about half an hour after you went below; but the change has been going on so imperceptibly that it scarcely forced itself upon my attention until just before--Ah! did you hear that, sir?" A low, faint, weird, moaning sound, scarcely perceptible, had floated to the ship, causing the mate to interrupt himself suddenly; and at the same moment a light, evanescent puff of hot air seemed to sweep past us. "Yes," said I, "I both heard and felt it. We are going to have a heavy squall, if nothing worse, out of that blackness yonder. Turn the hands up at once, and let them go to work to strip the ship without loss of time. Get in all your light flying kites first of all, and stow them snugly; then brail in your mizzen and stow it; let run your staysail halliards, and haul up your courses. We will leave nothing spread but the two topsails and the fore-topmast-staysail; then, let what will come, we shall be prepared for it." Forbes hurried away to execute this order, and next moment there came the sounds of a most unmerciful pounding on the forecastle-head with a handspike, and the accompanying cry of-- "Hillo there, sleepers; tumble up. All hands shorten sail! Hurry up, my bullies, or we shall have the squall upon us before we are ready for it." The response to this summons was almost instantaneous, and in two or three minutes the whole crew were at work, under the orders of Mr Roberts, who had heard, even in his sleep, the distant cry of "All hands," and had tumbled out without waiting for a more formal summons. This man I now found to be excellent in such an emergency as the present; calm, cool, and collected; not hurrying anybody, yet, as it were, infusing his own energy and vitality into the men by the sharp, incisive tones of his voice, and putting quicksilver into them by--as it seemed--the mere exercise of his will. Under such masterful supervision the work progressed rapidly, and in something over half an hour we had the ship under her fore and main-topsails (which were patent-reefing) and the fore-topmast staysail; every other thread being snugly furled, and the men once more down on deck. The watch was then sent below again for the short time remaining to them, and I composed myself comfortably in a capacious wicker chair to abide the issue of events.