chowder to re-warm. Having thus got supper well under way, he returned
to the cabin, where he proceeded to set the table. The worst of
Cabot's distress had already been relieved by a cup of cold tea and a
ship's biscuit. Now, finding that he was able to talk, his host could
no longer restrain his curiosity, but began to ask questions. He had
already learned Cabot's name, and told his own, which was Whiteway
Baldwin, "called White for short," he had added. Now he said:

"You needn't talk, if you don't feel like it, but I do wish you could
tell how you came to be drifting all alone on that raft."

"A steamer that I was on was wrecked yesterday, and so far as I know I
am the only survivor," answered Cabot.

"Goodness! You don't say so! What steamer was she, where was she
bound, and what part of the coast was she wrecked on?"

"She was the 'Lavinia' from New York for St. Johns, and she wasn't
wrecked on any part of the coast, but was lost at sea."

"_Jiminetty_! The 'Lavinia'! It don't seem possible. How did it
happen? There hasn't been any gale. Did she blow up, or what?"

"I don't know," replied Cabot, "for I was down-stairs when it took
place, and my stateroom door was jammed so that I couldn't get out for
a long time. I only know that there was the most awful crash I ever
heard, and it seemed as though the ship were being torn to pieces.
Then there came an explosion, and when I got on deck the ship was
sinking so fast that I had only time to cut loose the raft before she
went down."

"What became of the others?" asked White excitedly.

"I am afraid they were drowned, for I heard them shouting just before
she sank, but there was such a cloud of steam, smoke, and fog that I
couldn't see a thing, and after it was all over I seemed to be the only
one left."

"Wasn't there a rock or ship or anything she might have run into?"
asked the young skipper, whose tanned face had grown pale as he
listened to this tale of sudden disaster.

"There was an iceberg," replied Cabot, "but when I went down-stairs it
wasn't very close, and the sun was shining, so that it was in plain
sight."

"That must be what she struck, though," declared the other. Then he
thrust his head up the companionway and shouted: "Hear the news, Dave.
The 'Lavinia's' lost with all on board, except the chap we've just
picked up."

"What happened her?" asked the man laconically.

"He says she ran into an iceberg in clear day, bust up, an