me on deck, and the order was given to lower the boats. For
the credit of these Irishmen be it said that no man stepped in till he
was ordered by name. The first boat capsized before she even reached
the water, and swung with a crash that shivered her against the side of
the ship. The other was more fortunate, and got clear just before we
foundered.

Tim, who might have joined it, preferred to stand by me. The other men
provided themselves with spars or corks, and prepared for the end.

"Keep near me," said Tim with a tremble in his voice, not of fear but of
affection.

That was all I heard; for at that moment the _Kestrel_ gave a dive
forward, which cleared her decks, and sent her, captain, lace, and all,
to the bottom.

"Jump!" cried a voice at my side.

I felt an arm round me as the water closed over us; and when, struggling
hard against the suck of the foundering ship, I rose to the surface, Tim
was beside me with one arm still round me, the other clinging to a
floating spar.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

ON HIS MAJESTY'S SERVICE.

How long Tim and I clung to the spar I know not. The next thing I
remember was opening my eyes and finding myself in the bottom of a boat
crowded with men from the _Kestrel_. The sea was running mountains
high, and the boat, without rudder or oars, was flung like a cork from
wave to wave. The dawn was just beginning to show in the sky, and the
thunder of surf and wind was deafening.

"Where is Tim?" said I.

No one heard me, or, if they heard, heeded me. I raised my head and
looked anxiously from one to another of my comrades.

"Where is Tim?" I asked again, louder, and with a pluck at the sleeve
of the man nearest me.

"Where all the rest are," replied the man, "if you mean the lieutenant."

I crawled from where I lay and came beside him on the bench.

"Drowned?" I asked.

"There was only room for one of you when we picked you up. He made us
take you, and it was all we could do to get you aboard."

"And Tim?"

"We gave him a rope to lash him to his spar, and lost sight of him."

Half-drowned and bruised as I was, this blow sent me back to the bottom
of the boat like one already dead. What had I to live for now?

When I came to myself next a change had come over the scene. The sea
had quieted down, the afternoon sun was striking across the waves, and
ahead of us, on the northern horizon, was a low, grey line of coast.

But it was not at that that all eye