t, which had been removed bodily from its slings
in his cabin below, so that he might be shifted without disturbing him;
then, Mary Llewellyn, the now husbandless stewardess, followed suit;
and, after her, Mr Lathrope and the children. Eight of the remaining
sixteen men of the crew were then directed to take their places around
the ladies' inclosure, along with Mr Adams and Frank Harness, while the
other eight hands, under the command of Mr McCarthy, were told off to
the jolly-boat, which was provided with double-banked oars and attached
to the raft by a stout tow-rope--it being the intention of Mr Meldrum,
who remained on the raft as deputy commander-in-chief of the whole party
in poor Captain Dinks' place, to relieve the rowers every alternate
hour, so that all should have an equal share in the arduous task of
towing, a job which would tax all their strength.

Everything being ready, the signal was given to start, when, away went
the jolly-boat, smartly at first, but more slowly afterwards as soon as
the strain of the tow-rope was felt, moving gradually from the wreck of
the old ship, and tugging after her the unwieldy raft, which seemed
somewhat loath to go. But, not an exclamation was uttered, not a word
spoken, as the survivors of the wreck glided off through the water
towards the shore, leaving behind them the wave-scarred craft that had
so long been their ocean home.

It was like a funeral procession.

The thoughts of all were too deep for words.

Even the children were awed into silence by the seriousness of their
elders;--a seriousness that was as much owing to the uncertainty of
their own fate as to their regret at parting the last link that bound
them to their English home and civilisation, from which they seemed to
have been cut adrift for ever in casting off from the poor, old, ill-
fated _Nancy Bell_!

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

DESOLATION ISLAND.

Kate Meldrum was the first to break the melancholy silence that reigned
as they rowed away from the old ship, all looking back sadly at her
battered hull, whose crippled condition could now be better seen--the
bows all rent and torn by the violence of the waves, the gaping sides,
the gutted hold washed out by the water, and the sea around covered with
pieces of shattered planking from the 'tween-decks, besides the curved
knees and other larger parts of the timber work, that had been wrenched
off during the vessel's battle with the elements, and numbers o