52 THE WORLD OF ICH.

Meanwhile a change had come over the scene. The
sun had set, red and lowering, behind a bank of dark
clouds, and there was every appearance of stormy
weather ; but as yet it was nearly calm, and the ship
was unable to beat up against the light breeze in the
wake of the two boats, which were soon far away on
the horizon. Then a furious gust arose and passed
away, a dark cloud covered the sky as night fell, and
soon boats and whale were utterly lost to view.

_“Wae’s me!” eried the big Scotch mate, as he ran up
and down the quarter-deck wringing his hands, “ what
zs to be done noo?”

Saunders spoke a mongrel kind of language—a

 

mixture of Scotch and English—-in which, although
the Scotch words were sparsely scattered, the Scotch
accent was very strong.

“ How’s her head ?”

“ Nor’-nor’-west, sir.”

“Keep her there, then. Maybe, if the wind holds
stiddy, we may overhaul them before it’s quite dark.”

Although Saunders was really in a state of the
utmost consternation at this unexpected termination
to the whale-hunt, and expressed the agitation of his
feelings pretty freely, he was too thorough a seaman
to neglect anything that was necessary to be done
under the circumstances. He took the exact bearings
of the point at which the boats had disappeared, and
during the night, which turned out gusty and threaten-
ing, kept making short tacks, while lanterns were hung
at the mast-heads, and a huge torch, or rather a small