At its commencement the gale blew from about south-east, or dead in their teeth; and the revolutions of the engines were increased to a rate which, under ordinary circumstances, would have given the ship a speed of some twenty-five knots, but which now drove her ahead at the rate of only some fifteen knots against the gale. As the afternoon wore on, the wind gradually "backed," until, at four p.m., it was blowing from due south. This confirmed Mildmay in his suspicion that they had fallen in with one of those most terrible of storms--_a cyclone_! At half-past four o'clock--at which time the gale was raging with hurricane force--a sail was made out, bearing about one point on the _Flying Fish's_ port bow, and about four miles distant. As well as could be made out, she appeared to be barque-rigged; and, on approaching her more closely, this proved to be the case. She was a vessel of some four hundred tons register, pretty deep in the water; and--though she was hove-to under close-reefed fore and main topsails--was making frightfully bad weather of it, the seas sweeping clear and clean over her, fore and aft, every time she met them. The moment that the stranger was first sighted, Mildmay opened one of the windows--at the risk of getting drenched to the skin--and brought a telescope to bear upon her. He had scarcely brought her within the field of vision when he exclaimed agitatedly: "Good Heavens! what is the man about? He has hove-to his ship _on the port tack_; does he not know he is in a cyclone?" "What does it matter which tack the vessel is hove-to upon?" asked Sir Reginald with a smile at Mildmay's excitement. "All the difference in the world, my dear sir," was the reply. "We are in the Northern Hemisphere; in which--as you have already had an opportunity of observing--cyclones _invariably_ revolve _against_ the apparent course of the sun. A knowledge of this fact teaches the wary seaman to heave-to on the _starboard_ tack; by doing which his ship dodges _away from_ the fatal centre or `eye' of the storm. This fellow, however, by heaving-to on the port tack, is steadily nearing the centre, which must eventually pass over him, when his ship will be suddenly becalmed, only to be struck aback a few moments later, when she will-- almost to a dead certainty--founder with all hands. For Heaven's sake let us bear down upon him and warn him ere it be too late. And we have no time to lose about it either; for, if I may judge from the fury of the gale, the centre of the storm is not far off."