all; it was a hurricane, which raged for half an hour with
uninterrupted violence. From the time the tempest struck the Waldo, she
had been drifting towards the dangerous rocks; and when the wheel and
rudder-head were shattered, the vessel became unmanageable. Six men,
including the captain and the passenger, lay paralyzed on the
quarter-deck. There were only three left--the mate, the steward, and one
seaman. When the steering apparatus was disabled, the brig fell off, and
rushed madly before the hurricane, towards the dangerous reefs. The rain
had been pouring down in torrents for a few moments, but little cared
the seamen for that which could not harm the vessel.

Harvey Barth was not, and did not pretend to be, a sailor. When the
storm burst upon the vessel, he retired to the galley. When the moments
of peril came, he was alarmed at first; but then he felt that he had
only a few months, or a year or two at most, of life left to him, and he
tried to be as brave as the sailors who were doing there utmost to save
the brig from destruction. Perhaps it would have been a pleasure to him
in the last days of his life to do some noble deed; but there was only
the drudgery of the common sailor to be done. He saw the man from the
topsail yard strike heavily upon the deck. He dragged him into the
galley, but he seemed to be dead. The steward had tender feelings, and
he tried to do something to restore the unconscious sailor. While he was
thus engaged, the mate summoned him to assist in setting the
fore-topmast staysail. He obeyed the call, though it was the first time
he was ever called upon to do any duty, except to make fast, or cast off
the fore-sheet. He was not a strong man, but he did the best he could at
the halyard, and the mate was satisfied with him.

The bolt of lightning which came down the mainmast seemed to shake and
shatter the brig, and the hands forward were terribly startled by the
shock. Then the sail they were setting was torn in pieces. The mate who
had worked vigorously and courageously, saw that all they had done was
useless. The vessel fell off, and rushed to the ruin that was in store
for her.

"It is all up with us," said Mr. Carboy, the mate, as he dropped the
halyard. "Nothing can save the brig now."

"What shall we do?" asked Harvey Barth, startled by the words of the
officer. "Must we drown here?"

"We shall do what we can to save ourselves," replied Mr. Carboy, as he
made his way with no littl