Chapter 16

---"Yet again? What do you here? Shal we give o'er, an drown? Have you a
mind to sink?"--_Tempest._

Our watchful adventurer was not blind to these well-known and sinister
omens. No sooner did the peculiar atmosphere, by which the mysterious
image that he so often examined was suddenly surrounded, catch his eye,
than his voice was heard in the clear, powerful, and exciting notes of
warning.

"Stand by," he called aloud, "to in all studding sails! Down with them!"
he added, scarcely giving his former words time to reach the ears of his
subordinates. "Down with every rag of them, fore and aft the ship! Man the
top-gallant clew-lines, Mr Earing. Clew up, and clew down! In with every
thing, cheerily, men! In!"

This was a language to which the crew of the "Caroline" were no strangers,
and one which was doubly welcome; since the meanest seaman of them all had
long thought that his unknown Commander had been heedlessly trifling with
the safety of the vessel, by the hardy manner in which he disregarded the
wild symptoms of the weather. But they undervalued the keen-eyed vigilance
of Wilder. He had certainly driven the Bristol trader through the water at
a rate she had never been known to have gone before; but, thus far, the
facts themselves attested in his favour, since no injury was the
consequence of what they deemed his temerity. At the quick, sudden order
just given, however, the whole ship was instantly in an uproar. A dozen
seamen called to each other, from different parts of the vessel each
striving to lift his voice above the roaring ocean; and there was every
appearance of a general and inextricable confusion; but the same
authority which had aroused them, thus unexpectedly, into activity,
produced order, from their ill-directed though vigorous efforts.

Wilder had spoken, to awaken the drowsy, and to excite the torpid. The
instant he found each man on the alert, he resumed his orders, with a
calmness that gave a direction to the powers of all, but still with an
energy that he well knew was called for by the occasion. The enormous
sheets of duck, which had looked like so many light clouds in the murky
and threatening heavens, were soon seen fluttering wildly, as they
descended from their high places; and, in a few minutes, the ship was
reduced to the action of her more secure and heavier canvas. To effect
this object, every man in the ship had exerted his powers to the utmost,
under the guidance of the steady but rapid mandates of their Commander.
Then followed a short and apprehensive breathing pause. Every eye was
turned towards the quarter where the ominous signs had been discovered;
and each individual endeavoured to read their import, with an