"You young rascal!" said Captain Miles, shaking his fist at me in a jocular manner, "I'll have you keel-hauled if you utter another question! I will answer you this one, however--but it is the last time, though, mind that! The sun, my lad, is the source of the winds of the globe, as it is the prime agent of heat and life. The atmospheric air being heated by the solar orb at the equator, where its force is necessarily the greatest, ascends. This creates a vacuum, which the surrounding air hastens to fill, causing thus a constant indraught from both the north and south towards the equator; and the fact of the opposing winds meeting at this point produces those very calms which vex us poor mariners. There, Master Tom, that's all I can tell you; for, I must see about my sextant now to consult the great luminary we have been talking of, so as to see where our scudding has taken us to." Captain Miles's mission after his sextant, however, was a vain quest to- day, for a mass of fleeting clouds were continually passing to and fro across the zenith, obscuring the heavens so much that not a single peep of the sun could be had either at noon or later on. The wind now, too, began to come in violent gusts, striking the ship every now and then with a force that seemed to bury her in the water; while the sea got rougher and rougher, looking as angry as it was possible to conceive. Presently, with a loud report, the main-topsail split in half, and then the pieces blew away bit by bit ahead of the ship like paper kites, the useful foretop-sail which had been again set in the afternoon being now the only sail left on her; but, still, on she plunged through the waste of waters as madly as ever, the sky getting more and more overcast as the day wore on, and a heavy bank of blue-black clouds gathered together right in front, to the north-west, whither we were trending. "Don't you think, captain," said Mr Marline, who had returned to the poop after having a short rest below--he having remained on deck while the captain had turned in during the early part of the morning watch--"I say, don't you think we're running into the very jaws of the gale again?" "It certainly looks like it," replied Captain Miles shaking his head. "We must try and lay her to, if we can, though I dread the job! See to the hands being ready to set that mizzen staysail; it will help her head round when we ease off the yards." This sail had been bent all ready the night before, and now with great difficulty was hoisted; but then came a greater difficulty, that of getting the ship about--for, what with the gusty wind and the heavy sea it was a very perilous proceeding, the vessel running the risk of being pooped as well as broaching-to. "We'll have to wear her!" said the captain, after thinking over the matter a bit. "Send a hand or two forwards to see to the fore-staysail, so as to be ready for hoisting it when I give the word!"