unning. Even the hurricane could not
flatten that, and the _Chih' Yuen_, driven forward by her own steam and
the power of the wind behind her, rushed down one steep slope and up the
next with a speed that made even the most experienced seaman gasp. A
very slight alteration of the helm, at the speed at which the ship was
then travelling, would certainly suffice to send her reeling over upon
her beam-ends, aided by the "send" of the sea.

Looking round him, after the storm's first wild outburst, Frobisher was
horrified to observe the terrible damage and loss of life that had been
caused by that first great rush of water. Of the men who had been on
deck at the time, only some half a dozen poor, draggled, half-drowned
creatures, clinging limply to the nearest support, could be seen; while
every movable object had been swept overboard into the sea, as well as a
number that are not usually considered easy of removal. Several
ventilators had been shorn off level with the deck, and the water had
poured in tons down the openings thus formed; the two quarterboats had
disappeared altogether, and of another boat only the stem and stern
posts remained, hanging to the davit tackles by their ring-bolts.
Stanchions were either missing altogether, or bent into a variety of
curious and extraordinary shapes; and even some of the lighter
machine-guns mounted on deck had been torn from their tripods, and were
by this time at the bottom of the sea. The havoc was simply
indescribable, and Frobisher's heart was full of bitterness as he
surveyed the shocking wreck of what had, a few minutes previously, been
the smartest and finest cruiser in the whole Chinese Navy, and thought
of the poor souls who were perhaps, even now, struggling feebly as they
gradually sank to their watery graves.

All that night both Drake and Frobisher remained on the bridge, not
daring to leave the ship to herself for an instant; and many and many a
time during those hours of darkness did each of them think that his last
moment was come. Yet time after time the cruiser recovered from the
staggering blows inflicted by wind and sea, and rushed from crest to
crest of the swell like a flying-fish pursued by dolphin.

Several times during the night and the following morning her skipper
tried to gauge the speed at which his ship was travelling, and
ultimately he estimated that she must be doing fully twenty knots over
the ground. As the cruiser was travelling at this