Mingled
with the other sounds of the storm, Winn now began to distinguish that
of waves plashing on the deck of the raft. Certainly his surroundings
had undergone some extraordinary change since he turned in for the
night, but what it was passed the boy's comprehension.
After a long search he found a box of matches and lighted the lamp,
forgetting that all its oil had been exhausted the evening before. It
burned for a few minutes with a sickly flame, and then went out. Even
that feeble light had been a comfort. It had showed him that
everything was still all right inside the "shanty," besides enabling
him to find and put on the clothes that he had hung near the stove to
dry. As he finished dressing, and was again standing in utter darkness
puzzling over his situation, he was nearly paralyzed by a blinding
glare of light that suddenly streamed into the window nearest him. It
was accompanied by the hoarse roar of steam, a confusion of shoutings,
and the loud clangor of bells. Without a thought of the weather, Winn
again flung open the door and rushed into the open air. So intense and
dazzling was the flood of yellow light, that he seemed to be gazing
into the crater of an active volcano. It flashed by as suddenly as it
had appeared, and the terrified boy became aware that a big steamboat
was slipping swiftly past the raft, but a few feet from it.
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