That glance caused him to shout a sudden order to take in all sail.

At the same moment a sigh of wind swept over the sleeping sea as if the storm-fiend were expressing regret at having been so promptly discovered and met.
Seamen are well used to sudden danger--especially in equatorial seas--and to prompt, unquestioning action.

Not many minutes elapsed before the _Sunshine_ was under the smallest amount of sail she could carry.

Even before this had been well accomplished a stiff breeze was tearing up the surface of the sea into wild foam, which a furious gale soon raised into raging billows.
The storm came from the Sunda Straits about which the captain and his son had just been talking, and was so violent that they could do nothing but scud before it under almost bare poles.

All that night it raged.
Towards morning it increased to such a pitch that one of the back-stays of the foremast gave way.