rksome for you, Dr. Christobal, to be stationed
here when the ship is in danger. I am certain you would prefer to be
up there with the others."

"Thank you for saying that. I wish you were able to read all my
thoughts as accurately."

His right hand went to the pocket in which he had placed the revolver.
The stock appeared to have a peculiar clamminess as his fingers closed
around it. Though he was proud of the iron nerve which had won him
repute in his profession, he almost prayed now that it might not fail
him at the last. What a horror, to be compelled with his parting
glance to see this bright and gracious woman crumple up on the deck!

"But I know you are a brave man," she said with a confidant smile. "It
demanded a higher courage to pass undaunted through the ordeal of the
storm than to face these ill-armed Indians. Please don't think I am a
warlike person, but it makes my blood boil to find that there are
wretches who regard our distress as their opportunity to murder us and
pillage the ship. What have we done to them? If they are poor and
hungry, and they would only come to us in a peaceful way, Captain
Courtenay would give them all the stores he could spare."

Christobal heard ominous sounds from the fore part of the vessel. The
revolver shooting had ceased, for the convincing reason there were no
more cartridges. Courtenay's double barrelled gun was being fired as
quickly as he could reload it, and the sharp snap of one of the rifles
in the Indians' possession was recognizable as coming from the poop,
the remaining marksmen having preferred to fire wildly from their
canoes. But Christobal knew that a deadly struggle was in progress on
the fore deck. Tollemache, Frascuelo, and three Chileans were engaged
in a hand-to-hand fight with nearly a score of savages; the doctor
could distinguish the cries of the combatants, the irregular stamping
of boot-shod feet.

He wondered why the girl, with her acute senses, did not grasp the
significance of the yells and trampling on the deck, until it occurred
to him, with a quick pang, that she was listening for one voice alone;
owing to her ignorance of the desperate nature of the conflict raging
overhead she had ears for nothing further.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned and looked at him. There
was a gravity in his eyes, which startled her.

"Elsie," he said, "you believe in the efficacy of prayer, don't you?
Well, then, pray now a little.