On groping my way back to the chair I had previously occupied, I found that Sir Edgar was still occupying the chair beside my own, meditatively pulling away at a cigar, the glowing spark of which would probably have still further increased Roberts's perturbation, had he seen it. As I seated myself beside him the baronet made a half-jesting inquiry as to whether our preparations had had the effect of reassuring the mate; so, to while away the time, and for want of something more interesting to talk about, I told him Roberts's story, and also described to him the peculiar state of mind under which the poor fellow was labouring. Sir Edgar fully agreed with me that the latter was simply the result of some slight and probably temporary derangement, and was proceeding to discuss the subject of presentiments in general, and the extreme rarity of really well-authenticated cases of verification, when the atmosphere became for an instant faintly luminous with the evanescent, quivering glimmer of the silent, summer lightning. The flash trembled but for a moment in the sky, and was gone again; but in that moment I saw that the firmament was packed with vast masses of dense, heavy, threatening, highly, charged electric cloud, the weird, contorted shapes of which clearly indicated that they were being powerfully acted upon by the mighty antagonistic forces that they carried within their bosoms, and gave unmistakable warning that an elemental strife was impending, for which it would be well to prepare. Beneath this louring canopy the surface of the water shone with the unwrinkled smoothness of polished glass, faithfully reflecting every detail, even to the most minute, of form and colour exhibited by the writhing cloud-shapes that overhung it; and also faithfully reflecting the shapes of four large proas that, in a somewhat scattered fleet, were revealed at a distance of some three miles to the northward and eastward of the spot occupied by ourselves. The barque happened at the moment to be lying with her head pointing about south-east; these proas were therefore broad upon our larboard beam, and they were the first objects that met my sight. Some, if not all, of these craft were working their sweeps; for, with the momentary quiver of the lightning, I had caught the glint of reflected light from wet oar-blades projecting from the dark, shadowy mass of the hull; and they were all heading up or down the straits--I could not tell which in the unexpected glimpse I had caught of them--for they all showed end-on, or nearly so, to us. Meanwhile, Roberts had completed his task, and was in the act of mounting to the poop--for I caught sight of his figure out of the corner of my eye--when the flash came. As the opaque darkness once more enveloped us I heard his voice exclaiming sharply, and, as it seemed to me, with a note of exultation in it, as though proud at the prospect of at least one half of his presentiment being verified-- "Did you see that, sir?"