Well, we
beat about until we sighted St. Kilda, where wet weather came on,
and a gale from the west sprang up. We made no headway, and the
island lay like an impassable rock on our beam for three days. The
sea came rolling on from the west--great snow-topped mountains of
waves--and the spray and the cutting sleet were hard to stand
against. One night we shipped a heavy sea, which carried away our
port bulwarks and stanchions and sent me into the lee scuppers,
where I was stunned by a blow on the head. The same sea smashed the
jolly boat.
"I was insensible for a couple of days, and when I crept on deck
again I found the other boat had been stove in. The fore and main
topgallant masts were gone. I was standing on the quarterdeck,
when, just at midnight, I was startled by a most unearthly
caterwauling, as though all the furies in the infernal regions had
broken loose. I looked in the direction it came from, and, behold!
there stood the cat like a frightful apparition. He seemed four
times his original size, and his eyes were like two gleaming fires.
Even now I am not sure if it was the flesh-and-blood Baudrons or
his ghost come to explain the mystery of his disappearance, and
vent his displeasure at me for having taken him from his
comfortable home. As I looked at the goblin cat my head reeled and
I fell on the deck.
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