the master's mate, eyeing the quartermaster at the wheel, who was giving
a helping hand to the two helmsmen, their task being by no means easy to
make the ship keep her luff under the circumstances of wind and sea. "I
wonder the commander doesn't reef tops'ls? We can't carry on much
longer like this!"

"I hope he won't," whispered little Tommy Mills to me aside, my chum
having come up with the rest from the gunroom at the general call.
"Ain't it jolly, spinning along like this, eh, Jack?"

Before I could reply, however, the commander seemed to have arrived at
Mr Stormcock's opinion, that we were still carrying too much canvas,
for he came to the break of the poop and shouted out to the boatswain's
mate.

"Hands reef topsails!" he cried. "Topmen aloft! Take in two reefs!"

"Not a bit too soon," growled the master's mate, under his breath. "He
ought to have given that order when the to'gallants were taken in!"

"Better late than never, say I," said Mr Jellaby, laughing, as the
topmen raced up the ratlines and the weather braces were rounded-in,
preparatory to reefing. "Really, Stormcock, you're the most inveterate
growler I have come across in the service since first I went to sea, by
Jove!"

Tom Mills and I chuckled at this; but, alas! our merriment was suddenly
hushed by hearing a wild shriek come from aloft, that rose above the
moaning of the wind as it whistled through the rigging and the
melancholy wash of the waves, while, at the same instant, a dark body
whizzed through the air and fell into the water alongside with a heavy
plunge.

"Good heavens!" exclaimed Commander Nesbitt, as we all stared at one
another with blanched faces. "What is that?"

His question was answered in the moment of its utterance by a loud shout
from forward that rang through the ship, sending a chill to every heart.

"Man overboard!"

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A HOPELESS QUEST.

"Sentry, let go the life-buoy!" cried out Commander Nesbitt at once to
the marine guard on duty on the poop, as the shout reached his ears; and
then, facing round again forward, he said, "Bosun's mate, call away the
lifeboat crew!"

On the order being given, the marine had instantly pulled the trigger
releasing the slip by which the patent buoy was suspended over the
stern, whereupon it dropped into the sea below; the same mechanism
igniting the port fire with which it was charged, although it was not
yet dark, as the friction-tube had been put i