Hardly had the sun set than a heavy rain beat straight down, rattling on the decks (for we had taken in the awnings) and making a strange phosphorescent light on the water; but still there was no sign of wind.
"When the rain's before the wind, Halliards, sheets, and braces bind."
"I wonder if that rhyme applies to this part of the globe?" remarked my uncle, as, clad in oilskins and sou'-westers, we stood' on deck, glad of the opportunity of being cooled by the downpour after weeks of tropic heat.
"We'll have it before long," said my father, looking towards the reef and trying to pierce the inky blackness. "And, in spite of the reef, we are on a lee shore.
"No, but there'll be trouble if the anchors come home. By the by, did you stow away those blasting charges carefully?"
"I had them sent ashore and buried near the cave."
"That's good. I don't like the idea of having highly charged explosives on board in heavy electrical storms."
Looking up, we saw a pale blue light flickering on our main-mast head, and for the moment I thought the vessel had taken fire.
"The air is full of electricity," said my father. "St. Elmo's Fires I think the sailors term the phenomenon. Reggie, run below out of the way. If you turn in before I see you again, turn in all standing, for you might be wanted on deck in a hurry."
I turned to obey, but just as I gained the companion the whole sky seemed one blaze of bluish light pierced by vivid flashes of lightning, which was immediately succeeded by a deafening peal of thunder that shook the yacht like a dried leaf in an October gale.
Even as I gained the cabin a furious blast struck the ship broadside on, and, staggering and pitching, she slewed round head to wind. The storm had broken.
Rolling, heaving, jumping short to her tautened cables, the "Fortuna" was fairly caught, and, down below, the sensation of being thrown about like a cork was almost worse than taking one's chances on deck. Reading was an utter impossibility, and all I could do was to wedge myself into my bunk, holding on when an extra heavy lurch threatened to hurl me across the cabin.
Just before midnight my father came below to swallow a hasty meal. The direction of the storm was, he told me, rapidly veering, for in these regions north of the Equator the gyration of these cyclones invariably takes place in one direction--from right to left, against the hands of a watch; while in the Southern Hemisphere the direction is reversed.