The clouds of the upper zone traveled more rapidly than those of the low strata of the atmosphere.

The case then must be foreseen, in which those heavy masses would fall, and might change into a tempest, perhaps a hurricane, what was yet only a very stiff breeze--that is to say, a displacement of the air at the rate of forty-three miles an hour.
Whether Negoro was not a man to be frightened, or whether he understood nothing of the threats of the weather, he did not appear to be affected.

However, an evil smile glided over his lips.

One would say, at the end of his observations, that this state of things was rather calculated to please him than to displease him.

One moment he mounted on the bowsprit and crawled as far as the ropes, so as to extend his range of vision, as if he were seeking some indication on the horizon.
Then he descended again, and tranquilly, without having pronounced a single word, without having made a gesture, he regained the crew's quarters.
Meanwhile, in the midst of all these fearful conjunctions, there remained one happy circumstance which each one on board ought to remember; it was that this wind, violent as it was or might become, was favorable, and that the "Pilgrim" seemed to be rapidly making the American coast.