The sky had by this time become entirely overcast, from horizon to horizon, and so intensely dark was it that I was literally unable to see my hand when I raised it before my eyes, by way of experiment; and, but for the dim radiance gleaming through the skylight from the turned-down lamp in the saloon, the faint gleam of light from the binnacle illumining feebly and in a ghostlike manner the head and shoulders of the man who lounged beside the useless wheel, and the pale fires flashing from the water that washed to and fro athwart the deck with the roll of the ship, it would have been utterly impossible to have moved from spot to spot save by the aid of one's memory of the various localities about the ship. A period of perhaps twenty minutes had elapsed since the retirement of the watch below at the conclusion of their labours, and I had stolen on tiptoe to the skylight--doubtless influenced to this stealthy mode of progression by the profound silence of the night--for the purpose of again consulting the barometer that swung therein, when I felt a heavy drop of tepid water fall upon my face. This was followed by another, and another, and another; and then, with the roar of a cataract, down came the rain in a perfect deluge, thrashing the surface of the sea into an expanse of ghostly, lambent, phosphorescent white that quickly spread apparently to the extreme limits of the horizon, and filling our decks so rapidly that it became necessary to open the ports fore and aft in order to free them. This deluge lasted for about five minutes, when it ceased as abruptly as it had begun; but even that short time had sufficed to beat the sea down so smooth that the previous violent rolling of the ship was reduced to a gentle, scarcely perceptible oscillation. "Now stand by to let run your fore and main-topsail halliards!" I cried--a command which was responded to by a prompt "Ay, ay, sir!" from the forecastle, the pattering of bare feet upon the deck, and the sound of ropes falling smartly on the planking as the halliard-falls were lifted off their pins and flung to the deck. "How is her head?" I inquired of the helmsman. "West-nor'-west, sir," was the reply. "Man your starboard fore and main-braces, Mr Forbes," said I to the second mate, who was standing by the break of the poop, peering anxiously into the impenetrable gloom. "Ay, ay, sir! Starboard fore and main-braces, lads. Be smart, now, and lay the yards fore and aft before the squall breaks upon us!" The men, who were evidently uneasy, and anxious to be doing anything rather than spend their time in passive anticipation, sprang to the braces and hauled the yards smartly round to a cheery "Yo heave ho;" flattening in until they could get no more.