Nor was he
mistaken: towards midnight the clouds gathered up fast, and as they
gathered up in thick piles, heaped one over the other, the lightning
darted through them in every direction; and as the clouds rose up, so
did the wind, but at first only in heavy gusts, and then lulling again
to a calm.
"Ready," said Captain Osborn, "how do you think we shall have the
wind?"
"Why, Captain Osborn, to tell you the truth, I don't think it will be
steady to one point long. It may at first blow hard from the north, but
it's my idea it will shift soon to some other quarter, and blow still
harder."
"What think you, Mackintosh?"
"We'll have plenty of it, and a long steady gale, that's my notion; and
the sooner we ship the dead lights the better."
Mr. Seagrave, with William, happened to be standing by at the time of
this conversation, and at the term dead lights Willie's face expressed
some anxiety. Ready perceived it, and said--
"That's a foolish name they give to the shutters which go over the
cabin windows to prevent the water from breaking into the cabin when a
vessel sails before the wind; you know we had them on the last time
that we had a gale.
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