The boys went reluctantly into their berths, but not to sleep.

Sick and frightened, they could only listen anxiously to the beating of the waves against the vessel, and the hurried movements of the two men on deck, as, tossed by the winds and the sea, the Una rolled heavily to and fro.

The moments seemed hours, and the hours seemed ages.

Never in their lives had they been so terrified. Several times the water rushed down into the cabin, as the waves broke over the deck; and Captain Dare looked down upon them, long enough to ask if they were drowned out.

"Hear the thunder!" exclaimed Ralph, as the heavy roll and crash sounded overhead, and the cabin was lighted almost continually with flashes of lurid light.

Ben made no reply, but buried his head under the blanket.

"It's queer I don't feel so scared as I did," said Ralph soberly. "I feel something as Captain Dare does--that after all we are in God's hand. Hear that peal! It seemed to roll right over the deck."

Ben made no answer, but cowered still closer under the blanket.

The rain now descended in perfect sheets upon the deck; and although the cabin door was closed, the water poured down through the cracks, and came in around the small windows above the berths, adding to the discomfort of the boys, who could not escape the drenching there without stepping into the water with which the cabin floor was covered.

The rain fell as if another flood had commenced; and the wind had no mercy on the little vessel--breaking her yards and snapping her topmasts; and unreefing with goblin fingers the topsails, it whipped them to tatters.

At length the thunder ceased to mutter, and after midnight the rain fell no more; but the wind continued to blow, and the little vessel to run before it.

It was sunrise when the captain opened the cabin door and looked down.

"Well, boys, get up and give thanks! The little vessel has weathered the toughest kind of a gale. We are all safe now."

"Is the danger really over?" asked the boys eagerly, as they sprang from the berth upon the wet floor.

"The worst is over, thank God! It was a tough storm and a stiff blow, but the Una rode it out," he said proudly. "One mast got a bad wrench, and all the canvas that could get loose got ripped into rags; but that's nothin' to what it might have been, considerin' how the wind roared and howled over the sea. Folks blame the sea for these accidents; but bless you, the sea ain't to blame! How can it help rearing up, with a gale like that throwing it on its pitchfork? I don't like to see things abused, and I stick up for the sea; it behaves well enough as long as the wind lets it."

"Where are we?" asked the boys, as they reached the deck and looked curiously around. "There's no land at all in sight!"

"No; we got blown well out to sea. It's lucky we didn't try to make a port last night: we'd have been caught among some o' them islands if we had, and knocked to pieces on the rocks."

"That's so," added Marcus, with a wise shake of the head.

"You two fellows did first-rate last night!"

"You are chaffing, captain," said Ralph, looking red.

"No, honestly. I expected I'd have trouble with you when that storm came; but I'll say that for you--you did first-rate!"

"We were too scared to do any other way," confessed Ben with a laugh.

"Scared or not, some folks will make a rumpus just when they ought to keep stillest.--Now, Marcus, give us a good breakfast, and then we'll shake out our canvas and see where our damages are. We must be working back, for I don't propose to let this wind drive us off shore any further than I can help.--One time last night, along the first of the blow, we came very near Whaleback, boys; but a miss is as good as a mile when the danger is over."

"Whaleback! Oh, I wish we were there now! No, I don't either!" exclaimed Ralph.

"I wish you was there, anyhow," said the captain gruffly. "That's where you belong. I believe the master there would take you back and forgive you. You've got a good dose of punishment, if ever a couple of young liars had."

"You don't know how Mr. Bernard feels about lying. He will never want the other boys to be with us again,--never!" said Ralph.

"I don't know about that," and Captain Dare shook his head wisely. "I know there isn't nobody hates a lie worse nor me; but it ain't for me to hold back when a fellow is sorry for it, and quits the whole business of lying."

"And I mean to do that!" interposed Ralph with emphasis; "but Mr. Bernard doesn't know it."

"No, and that's just what I was wishing you on Whaleback for, so you could tell him."

"He wouldn't believe us!" exclaimed Ben. "We couldn't expect him to, after we lied to him as we did. No, I don't want to see him. A storm at sea is bad enough; but I believe I'd rather go through another than go ashore and face him."

"I'd like to have him know how I feel about it," said Ralph. "I mean to write him a letter after I get back to father's. Of course we never can be taken back into school."

"Breakfast!" shouted Marcus, flourishing the towel with which he had been polishing the tin plates.

"I believe the fright last night took away my seasickness," said Ralph, as he helped himself to the fish Marcus had............