Each moment, the eastern puffs of air lost their
strength, becoming more and more feeble, until, in an incredibly short
period, the heavy sails were heard flapping against the masts. A
frightful and ominous calm succeeded. At this instant, a gleam flashed
from the fearful obscurity of the ocean, and a roar, like that of a
sudden burst of thunder, bellowed along the waters. The seamen turned
their startled looks on each other, standing aghast, as if a warning of
what was to follow had come out of the heavens themselves. But their
calm and more sagacious commander put a different construction on the
signal. His lip curled, in high professional pride, and he muttered with
scorn,--
"Does he imagine that we sleep? Ay, he has got it himself, and would
open our eyes to what is coming? What does he conjecture we have been
about, since the middle watch was set?"
Wilder made a swift turn or two on the quarter-deck, turning his quick
glances from one quarter of the heavens to another; from the black and
lulling water on which his vessel was rolling, to the sails; and from his
silent and profoundly expectant crew, to the dim lines of spars that were
waving above his head, like so many pencils tracing their curvilinear and
wanton images over the murky volumes of the superincumbent clouds.
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