CHAPTER X.
A WATERSPOUT.

URING the six days which followed the very pleas-

ant evening Ben spent in the cabin with Miss Dun-

ham, he had little opportunity to talk with the young
woman.

Continual squalls with rain, and, now and then, elec-
trical disturbances, are reported in each entry in the log-
book; therefore, as a matter of course, it was necessary
the captain have an “eye out” to all that was going on.

Ben hardly left the deck during this time, even for his
meals.

He did not carry his excess of caution as a captain to
the extent of absolutely depriving himself of food, but he
more often: took a hurried lunch, while standing in the
open door of the galley, than in the cabin, and when Miss
Dunham came on deck one evening, having been forced
to remain below a week because of the weather, she said,
as Ben advnaced to assist her up the companionway
stairs to the lee of the house:

“It has been so long since I have seen you, captain,
that it seems as if we should be introduced to each other.”

“You ought not to make any such remark as that, for
I flattered myself, during the last opportunity I had of

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