in the main the billows ceased to break and
washed along in a troubled but fast moderating swell. A kind of
brightness sat in the east, and the horizon opened to its normal
confines; but it was a desolate sea, nothing in sight save the ship,
though I eagerly and anxiously scanned the whole circle of the waters.

The two vessels had widened their distance, yet the note of the hail,
if dull, was perfectly distinct.

"Yacht ahoy! We're going to send a boat."

I saw a number of figures in motion on the ship's poop. The aftermost
boat was then swung through the davits over the side, four or five men
entered her, and a minute later she sank to the water.

"Here they come, Grace!" cried I. "At last, thank Heaven!"

"Oh, Herbert, I shall never be able to enter her," she exclaimed,
shrinking to my side.

But I knew better, and made answer with a caress only.

The oars rose and fell, the boat showed and vanished, showed and
vanished again as she came buzzing to the yacht, to the impulse of the
powerfully swept blades. Caudel stood by with some coils of line in
his hand; the end was flung, caught, and in a trice the boat was
alongside, and a sun-burnt, reddish-haired man, in a suit of serge, and
a naval peak to his cap, tumbled with the dexterity of a monkey over
the yacht's rail.

He looked round him an instant, and then came straight up to Grace and
me, taking the heaving and slanting deck as easily as though it were
the floor of a ball-room.

"I am the second mate of the _Carthusian_," said he, touching his cap
with an expression of astonishment and admiration in his eyes as he
looked at Grace. "Are all your people ready to leave, sir? Captain
Parsons is anxious that there should be no delay."

"The lady and I are perfectly ready," said I, "but my men have made up
their minds to stick to the yacht with the hope of carrying her home."

He looked round to Caudel who stood near.

"Ay, sir, that's right," exclaimed the worthy fellow, "it's agoing to
be fine weather and the water's to be kept under."

The second mate ran his eye over the yacht with a short-lived look of
puzzlement in his face, then addressed me:

"We had thought your case a hopeless one, sir."

"So it is," I answered.

"Are you wise in your resolution, my man?" he exclaimed, turning to
Caudel again.

"Ay, sir," answered Caudel doggedly, as though anticipating an
argument, "who's agoing to leave such a dandy craft as this to founder
for