of wind and rain, with thunder and lightning close after, as to
hide the light and keep me busy for a few minutes holding the
schooner up to it.

"The squall passed as suddenly as it came, and there was the
light, right over the end of the flying-jib-boom, burning as
steady as ever, but looking mighty blue, somehow. I thought it was
the effect of the mist, and tried to keep her headed for it. As I
was getting terribly puzzled and fussed up by what I thought was
the strange action of the compass, and by the way the little
spiteful gusts of wind seemed to come from every quarter at once,
the skipper came on deck. Before he had cleared the companion-way
he asked,

"'How does Hatteras Light bear?'

"'Dead ahead, sir,' said I.

"As he stepped on deck he turned to look at it, and I saw him
start as though he saw something awful. He looked for half a
minute, and then in a half-choked sort of voice he gasped out,
'The Death-Light!'

"At the same moment the light, that I had took to be Hatteras,
rolled slowly, like a ball of fire, along the jib-top-sail stay to
the top-mast head, and then I knew it was a St. Elmo's fire, a
thing I'd heard of but never seen before.

"As we all looked at it, afraid almost to say a word, there came a
sound like a moan over the sea, and in another minute a cyclone,