which
accompanied it, fairly cowed Hutton, who got up like a lamb and crawled
into the bows, leaving Hall and me to row.

"Keep her straight to the waves, whatever you do! it's all up if she
gets broadside on!" said the former to Charlie.

And so for another half-hour we laboured in silence; then almost
suddenly the daylight faded, and darkness fell over the bay.

I rowed on doggedly in a half-dream. Stories of shipwrecks and
castaways crowded in on my mind; I found myself wondering how and when
this struggle would end. Then my mind flew back to Parkhurst, and I
tried to imagine what they must think there of our absence. Had they
missed us yet? Should I ever be back in the familiar house, or--but I
dared not think of that. Then I tried to pray, and the sins of my
boyhood came up before my mind as I did so in terrible array, so that I
vowed, if but my life might be spared, I would begin a new and better
life from that time forward. Then, by a strange impulse, my eyes rested
on Charlie, as he sat there quietly holding the tiller in his hands and
gazing out ahead into the darkness. What was it that filled me with
foreboding and terror as I looked at the boy? The scene of the morning
recurred to my mind, and my halfhearted effort to prevent him from
accompanying us. Selfish wretch that I had been! what would I not now
give to have been resolute then? If anything were to happen to Charlie,
how could I ever forgive myself?

"I think we've made some way," he cried out cheerily. "Not much," said
Hall gloomily; "that light there is just under Shargle Head."

"Had we better keep on as we are?" I asked. "I don't see what else is
to be done. If we let her go before the wind, we shall get right on to
the rocks."

"You've a lot to answer for," growled Hutton from where he lay, half-
stupid with terror, in the bows.

Hall said nothing, but dashed his oar vehemently into the water and
continued rowing.

"I wonder if that light is anywhere near Parkhurst?" presently asked
Archer. "Do you see?"

We looked, and saw it; and then almost instantly it vanished. At the
same time we lost sight of the lights on Shargle Head, and the rain came
down in torrents. "A mist!" exclaimed Hall, in tones of horror. Well
indeed might he and we feel despair at this last extinguisher of our
hopes. With no landmark to steer by, with wind and sea dead in our
teeth, with the waves breaking in over our sides, and one useless
mutin