Not a word was spoken, but every one stood as though
waiting for something to happen. In a few minutes the mate came
forward, and in a low tone, which was almost a whisper, told us to
haul down the jib. The fore and mizen top-gallant sails were taken in,
in the same silent manner; and we lay motionless upon the water,
with an uneasy expectation, which, from the long suspense, became
actually painful. We could hear the captain walking the deck, but it
was too dark to see anything more than one's hand before the face.
Soon the mate came forward again, and gave an order, in a low tone, to
clew up the main top-gallant sail; and so infectious was the awe and
silence, that the clewlines and buntlines were hauled up without any
of the customary singing out at the ropes. An English lad and myself
went up to furl it; and we had just got the bunt up, when the mate
called out to us, something, we did not hear what,- but supposing it
to be an order to bear-a-hand, we hurried, and made all fast, and came
down, feeling our way among the rigging. When we got down we found all
hands looking aloft, and there, directly over where we had been
standing, upon the main top-gallant-mast-head, was a ball of light,
which the sailors name a corposant (corpus sancti), and which the mate
had called out to us to look at.
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