at would to a certainty be stove and swamped if any
such attempt were made; and that would mean the loss of more lives.
What was to be done? Leave two men to perish he would not, if there was
any possible means of saving them.

"Can you still see either of them, Williams?" hailed the captain.

"Yes, sir; I can still see the one I saw at first; but not the other,"
was the reply.

"We _must_ pick him up, if possible," exclaimed the skipper. "Up helm,
my man; hard up with it. Man the main-braces, and fill the topsail!"

At this juncture Sibylla, who had not heard the first part of the
skipper's speech, stepped up to Captain Blyth, ashy pale, and gasped:

"What are you going to do, captain? Is it possible you are going to be
inhuman enough to leave that poor fellow there _to die_?"

"No, my dear," was the answer. "I am going to save him, if it is in
human power to do so. You go below, now, like a good girl, and persuade
the others to go too; this is no sight for a woman to look upon."

But Sibylla could no more have gone below than she could have flown.
She walked aft, and stood at the taffrail with tightly-clasped hands and
starting eyes, looking eagerly astern, her whole body quivering with an
agony of impatience at what seemed to her the tardy movements of the
ship.

As a matter of fact, however, the _Flying Cloud_ had never proved
herself more handy, or been worked more smartly than on that precise
occasion; had she been sentient she could scarcely have yielded to her
commander's will more readily than she did. Keeping broad away until
she had good way on her the skipper watched his opportunity, and,
signing to the helmsman, the wheel was put over, and the ship flew up
into the wind, tacking like a yacht, Williams at the same time making
his way up on to the royal-yard, in order that the main-topsail might
not interfere with his range of vision. In effecting this change of
position, notwithstanding his utmost care, he contrived to lose sight of
the diminutive speck on the surface of the water; and when Captain Blyth
again hailed, asking him if he still saw it, he was compelled to answer
"No." An anxious search of about a minute, however--a minute which
seemed an age to Sibylla--enabled him to hit it off once more, and he
joyously hailed the deck to say that the person--whoever it might be--
was still afloat and broad on the lee-bow.

"Keep her away a couple of points," commanded Captain Blyth; "and pas