mour of
shipwreck; wild-eyed people rushed to and fro aimlessly; here and there
women and children shrieked; a clergyman fell upon his knees and began
to pray.

This went on for a space, till presently the second officer appeared
and, affecting an unconcerned air, called out that it was all right, the
captain said no one was to be afraid. He added that they were not more
than six miles from the shore, and that the ship would be beached in
half an hour. Indeed, as he spoke the engines, which had been stopped,
commenced to work again, and her head swung round in a wide circle,
pointing to the land. Evidently they had passed over the rock and were
once more in deep water, through which they travelled at a good speed
but with a heavy list to starboard. The pumps got to work also with a
monotonous, clanging beat, throwing out great columns of foaming water
on to the oily sea. Men began to cut the covers off the boats, and to
swing some of them outboard. Such were the things that went on about
them.

With the senseless Benita clasped to his breast, the blood from her cut
head running down his shoulder, Robert stood still awhile, thinking.
Then he made up his mind. As it chanced, she had a deck cabin, and
thither he forced his way, carrying her tenderly and with patience
through the distracted throng of passengers, for there were five hundred
souls on board that ship. He reached the place to find that it was quite
empty, her cabinmate having fled. Laying Benita upon the lower bunk,
he lit the swinging candle. As soon as it burned up he searched for
the lifebelts and by good fortune found two of them, one of which, not
without great difficulty, he succeeded in fastening round her. Then he
took a sponge and bathed her head with water. There was a great bruise
upon her temple where the block or whatever it was had struck her, and
the blood still flowed; but the wound was not very deep or extensive,
nor, so far as he could discover, did the bone appear to be broken or
driven in. He had good hope that she was only stunned, and would revive
presently. Unable to do more for her, a thought struck him. On the floor
of the cabin, thrown by the shock from the rack, lay her writing case.
He opened it, and taking a piece of paper wrote these words hurriedly in
pencil:

"You gave me no answer, and it is more than probable that I shall
receive none in this world which one or both of us may be upon the
verge of leaving. In the latter case