omfort and necessity as he might hastily collect
from the abandoned vessel; and then, entering it with his companions, to
await the critical instant when the wreck should sink from beneath them.

"Call you this hope?" exclaimed Mrs Wyllys, when his short explanation was
ended, her cheek again blanching with disappointment. "I have heard that
the gulf, which foundering vessels leave, swallows all lesser objects that
are floating nigh!"

"It sometimes happens. For worlds I would not deceive you; and I now say
that I think our chance for escape equal to that of being ingulfed with
the vessel."

"This is terrible!" murmured the governess, "but the will of Heaven be
done! Cannot ingenuity supply the place of strength, and the boat be cast
from the decks before the fatal moment arrives?"

Wilder shook his head in an unequivocal negative.

"We are not so weak as you may think us," said Gertrude. "Give a direction
to our efforts, and let us see what may yet be done. Here is Cassandra,"
she added--turning to the black girl already introduced to the reader, who
stood behind her young and ardent mistress, with the mantle and shawls of
the latter thrown over her arm, as if about to attend her on an excursion
for the morning--"here is Cassandra who alone has nearly the strength of a
man."

"Had she the strength of twenty, I should despair of launching the boat
without the aid of machinery But we lose time in words; I will go below,
in order to judge of the probable duration of our doubt and then to our
preparations. Even you, fair and fragile as you seem, lovely being, may
aid in the latter."

He then pointed out such lighter objects as would be necessary to their
comfort, should they be so fortunate as to get clear of the wreck, and
advised their being put into the boat without delay. While the three
females were thus usefully employed, he descended into the hold of the
ship, in order to note the increase of the water, and make his
calculations on the time that would elapse before the sinking fabric must
entirely disappear. The fact proved their case to be more alarming than
even Wilder had been led to expect. Stripped of her masts, the vessel had
laboured so heavily as to open many of her seams; and, as the upper works
began to settle beneath the level of the ocean, the influx of the element
was increasing with frightful rapidity. As the young manner gazed about
him with an understanding eye, he cursed, in the bitterness of