Then, as the bark veered to the wind and the great sails filled and the land slipped away astern, the boys looked for the last time upon the desolate Antarctic island with its towering mountains, its wheeling albatrosses, its giant seals and its forbidding shores.
With every stitch of canvas set, the _Hector_ heeled far over to the freshening breeze and plunged forward like a steamer through the seas, with the foaming bow-wave rising to the catheads and acres of yeasty froth streaming astern.
Steadily she raced onward towards the north and still no signs of the approaching storm which the skipper had feared. But the glass was falling steadily, the clouds scurried in wispy shreds across the sky and the waves constantly increased in size.
The following morning, the boys came on deck to find the crew aloft shortening sail, with only the lower topsails and spanker set and the bark wallowing sluggishly to the long, oily rollers running in from the western horizon.
“Looks like a mighty hard blow a-comin’,” remarked Mr. Kemp to the boys. “Some wind behind these rollers you can bet.”
Then, hurrying forward, he barked out orders while the crew scurried about, lashing down everything movable, securing the boats and making everything snug. Much to the boys’ surprise the negro, Sam, was the liveliest and hardest worker of all and despite his peg-leg, he scrambled aloft like a cat and hopped along on the footropes with the best of them.
Cap’n Pem eyed him approvingly. “Derned if he ain’t a proper sailorman,” he remarked. “Wisht ev’ry gosh-derned man’d lose a leg if ’twould make ’em good as him.”
By noon, the sky had become a deep, sickly, yellowish-gray, the seas had increased to mountainous size, and ever and anon, a sudden blast of cold, chilling wind screeched through the rigging, heeling the bark to her lee-rails, only to be followed by an ominous calm. By now, the bark had been stripped to close-reefed topsails and Captain Edwards and old Pem paced the deck with anxious faces, peering intently into the west, while at the wheel three men were stationed with lashings ready for instant use in case of emergency. Along the rails and between the masts, lifelines had been stretched and everywhere were evidences of preparations for severe weather.