appearance; and now, as they gathered themselves together, their forms
distended, and heightened, and reached forward vast arms into the sky,
striving to climb there, rolling upward voluminous cloud masses which
swiftly ascended toward the zenith. So quick was the progress of these
clouds that they did not seem to come from the banks below; but it was
rather as though all the air suddenly condensed its moisture and made it
visible in these dark masses.

As yet there was no wind, and the water was as smooth as glass; but over
the wide surface, as far as the eye could reach, the long swell of the
ocean had changed into vast rolling undulations, to the motion of which
the ship yielded, slowly ascending and descending as the waters rose and
fell, while the yards creaked, and the rigging twanged to the strain
upon them.

Every moment the sky grew darker, and as gloom gathered above so it
increased below, till all the sea spread out a smooth ebon mass.
Darkness settled down, and the sun's face was thus obscured, and a
preternatural gloom gathered upon the face of nature. Overhead vast
black clouds went sweeping past, covering all things, faster and faster,
till at last far down in the northern sky the heavens were all obscured.

But amidst all this there was as yet not a breath of wind. Far above the
wind careered in a narrow current, which did not touch the surface of
the sea but only bore onward the clouds. The agitation of the sky above
contrasted with the stillness below made the latter not consoling but
rather fearful, for this could be none other than that treacherous
stillness which precedes the sudden outburst of the hurricane.

For that sudden outburst all were now looking, expecting it every