heaven; but,
at the same moment, the spars of the vessel--she was a brig, they could
see--fell over her side with a crash. There was a grinding and rending
of timbers; and then, one enormous wave, as of three billows rolled into
one, poured over her in a cataract.

One concentrated shriek of horror and agony came from the seething
whirlpool of broken water, and, all was over; for, when the foam had
washed away with the retreating wave, not a single vestige could be seen
of the hapless craft!

She had sunk below the sea with those on board.

"Oh, brother, it is awful!" cried Eric.

Fritz could not answer. His throat was filled with a great gulping lump
which prevented him from drawing his breath; while his eyes were
suffused with tears that no unmanly feelings had called forth.

Eric was starting off again down to the beach, to see whether any one
had escaped from the wreck and been swept into the bay, in which case he
might have been of use in trying to drag them from the clutch of the
cruel waves, when Fritz called him back.

"Don't leave me behind, brother," he cried out passionately. "Wheel me
down, in the barrow, so that I may help, too!"

The lad stopped in a instant, comprehending his brother's request; and,
flying back, in and out of the hut as if he had been galvanised, he
quickly placed the old door on top of the wheelbarrow as a sort of
platform, with a mattress on top. He then lifted Fritz on the
superstructure as if he were a child, the excitement having given him
tenfold strength; and, wheeling the barrow down at a run, the two
arrived on the beach almost sooner than a boat could have pulled ashore
from the point where the catastrophe to the vessel had occurred.

But, although it was now light enough to scan the surface of the
restless sea for some distance out, no struggling form could be seen
battling with the waves; nor was there a single fragment of the wreck
noticeable, tossing about on the billows that still rolled in
thunderingly on the beach, marking out the contour of the bay with a
line of white surf, which shone out in contrast to the glittering black
sand that was ever and anon displayed as the back-wash of the waves
swept out again in a downward curve preparatory to the billows hurling
themselves in shore once more with renewed force.

"Poor chaps, they must all have gone down!" said Eric, half crying. He
had made sure that some one would have escaped, if only for him to
rescue