CHAPTER XII.
DANGEROUS NAVIGATION AND DOUBTFUL PILOTAGE--MONTAGUE IS HOT, GASCOYNE SARCASTIC.
We now turn to the Talisman, which, it will be remembered, we left making her way slowly through the reefs toward the northern end of the island, under the pilotage of Gascoyne.
The storm, which had threatened to burst over the island at an earlier period of that evening, passed off far to the south.

The light breeze which had tempted Captain Montague to weigh anchor soon died away, and before night a profound calm brooded over the deep.
When the breeze fell, Gascoyne went forward, and, seating himself on a forecastle carronade, appeared to fall into a deep reverie.

Montague paced the quarter-deck impatiently, glancing from time to time down the skylight at the barometer which hung in the cabin, and at the vane which drooped motionless from the masthead.

He acted with the air of a man who was deeply dissatisfied with the existing state of things, and who felt inclined to take the laws of nature into his own hands.

Fortunately for nature and himself, he was unable to do this.
Ole Thorwald exhibited a striking contrast to the active, impatient commander of the vessel.