He remained on deck, but it was very perilous, for the vessel was so
low in the water that the waves dashed over it so wildly that he could
hardly help being swept away. It was pitch dark, too, and the lantern
of the other vessel could only just be seen, now high above their
heads, now sinking in the trouble of the sea, while the little tartane
was lifted up as though on a mountain; and in a kind of giddy dream, he
thought of falling headlong upon her deck. Finally he found himself
falling. Was he washed overboard? No; a sharp blow showed him that he
had only fallen down the hatchway, and after lying still a moment, he
heard the voices of Lanty and Hebert, and presently they were all
tossed together by another lurch of the ship.

It was a night of miseries that seemed endless, and when a certain
amount of light appeared, and Arthur and Lanty crawled upon deck, the
tempest was unabated. They found themselves still dashed, as if their
vessel were a mere cork, on the huge waves; rushes of water coming over
them, whether from sea or sky there was no knowing, for all seemed
blended together in one mass of dark lurid gray; and where was the
Algerine ship--so lately their great enemy, now watched for as their
guide and guardian?

It was no place nor time for questions, even could they have been heard
or understood. It was scarcely possible even to be heard by one
another, and it was some time before they convinced themselves that the
large vessel had disappeared. The cable must have parted in the night,
and they were running with bare poles before the gale; the seamanship
of the man at the helm being confined to avoiding the more direct blows
of the waves, on the huge crests of which the little tartane rode--
gallantly perhaps in mariners' eyes, but very wretchedly to the