"If you tie the middle of that round your chest under the arms, you will have the two ends ready to lash yourself to windward when it gets bad. A couple of twists round anything will keep you safe, however much water may come over her." "Do you mean to stay on deck, sir?" the skipper asked. "You won't be able to do any good, and the fewer hands there are on deck the less there will be to be anxious about. I shall only keep four hands forward after the first burst is over, and they will be lashed to the shrouds. Purvis will be there with them. Perry and Andrews will take the helm, and I shall stay with them. "We have battened the fore hatch down. One of the men will be in the after cabin, and if I want to hoist the trysail or make any change I shall give three knocks, and that will be a signal for them to send half a dozen hands up. They will come through the saloon and up the companion. We shan't be able to open the fore hatch." "Very well, skipper. I will go down when the hands do. We are going to have it soon." It was now indeed so dark that he could scarcely see the face of the man he was speaking to. "I really think, captain, that I should send some of them down below at once. If a flash of lightning were to strike the mast, it would probably go down the shrouds harmlessly, but might do frightful damage among the men, crowded as they are up here; or it might blind some of them. Besides, the weight forward is no trifle." "I think that you are right, sir," and, raising his voice, the captain shouted: "All hands below except the four men told off. Go down by the companion." "Would you mind their stopping in the saloon, sir? It would make her more lively than if they all went down into the fo'castle." "Certainly not, captain;" and accordingly the men were ordered to remain in the saloon. "You can light your pipes there, my lads," Frank said, as they went down, "and make yourselves as comfortable as you can." The last man had scarcely disappeared when the captain said: "Look there, Major Mallett," and looking up Frank saw a ball of phosphorescent light, some eighteen inches in diameter, upon the masthead. "Plenty of electricity about," he said, cheerfully. "If they are all as harmless as that it won't hurt us." But as he ceased speaking there was a crash of thunder overhead that made the whole vessel quiver, and at the same instant a flash of lightning, so vivid, that for a minute or two Frank felt absolutely blinded. Without a moment's intermission, flash followed flash, while the crashes of thunder were incessant. "I think that plan of yours has saved the ship, sir," the captain said, when, after five minutes, the lightning ceased as suddenly as it had begun. "I am sure that a score of those flashes struck the mast, and yet no damage has been done to it, so far as I could see by the last flash. Are you all right there, Purvis?"