patiently for the fishermen's lives. At last they succeeded in
clearing the pumps, and worked them with untiring energy for hours, but
could not tell how many, for the thick end of a marline-spike had been
driven through the clock-face and stopped it.

It was still dark when they managed to rig up a jury-mast on the stump
of the old one and hoist a shred of sail. George King was ordered to
the tiller. As he passed Greely he said in a cheerful voice, "Trust in
the Lord, skipper, He can bring us out o' worse than this."

It might have been half an hour later when another sea swept the deck.
Jim took shelter under the stump of the mast and held on for dear life.
Charlie got inside the coil of the derrick-fall and so was saved, while
the others dived into the cabin. When that sea had passed they found no
one at the tiller. Poor King had been washed overboard. Nothing
whatever could be done for him, even if he had been seen, but the greedy
sea had swallowed him, and he was taken to swell with his tuneful voice
the company of those who sing on high the praises of redeeming love.

The sea which swept him into eternity also carried away the jury-mast,
and as the smack was now a mere wreck, liable to drift on shore if the
gale should continue long, Jim let down an anchor, after removing its
stock so that it might drag on the bottom and retard the drifting while
it kept the vessel's head to the sea.

A watch was then set, and the rest of the crew went below to wait and
wish for daybreak! It was a dreary vigil under appalling circumstances,
for although the smack had not actually sprung a leak there was always
the danger of another sea overwhelming and altogether sinking her. Her
crew sat there for hours utterly helpless and literally facing death.
Fortunately their matches had escaped the water, so that they were able
to kindle a fire in the stove and obtain a little warmth as well as make
a pot of tea and eat some of their sea-soaked biscuit.

It is wonderful how man can accommodate himself to circumstances. No
sooner had the crew in this wreck felt the stimulating warmth of the hot
tea than they began to spin yarns! not indeed of a fanciful kind--they
were too much solemnised for that--but yarns of their experience of
gales in former times.

"It minds me o' this wery night last year," said Lively Dick,
endeavouring to light his damp pipe. "I was mate o' the _Beauty_ at the
time. We was workin' wi' the Short Blue