low and broken by sobs. She had recovered consciousness
and Mayo was a bit sorry; in her swoon she had not realized their
plight; he feared hysterics and other feminine demonstrations, and he
knew that he needed all his nerve.

"We're going to die--we're going to die!" the girl kept moaning.

"Yes, my poor baby, and I have brought you to it," blubbered her father.

"Please keep up your courage for a little while, Miss Candage," Mayo
pleaded, wistfully.

"But there's no hope!"

"There's hope just as long as we have a little air and a little grit,"
he insisted. "Now, please!"

"I am afraid!" she whispered.

"So am I," he confessed. "But we're all going to work the best we know
how. Can't you encourage us like a brave, good girl?" He went stumbling
on. "Now tell me, mate," he commanded, briskly, "how thick is the
bulkhead between the cabin, here, and the hold?"

"I can't bother to think," returned Mr. Speed.

"It's only sheathing between the beams, sir," stated Captain Candage.

"Mate, you and the cook lend a hand to help me."

Oakum Otie broke off the prayer to which he had returned promptly.
"What's the use?" he demanded, with anger which his fright made
juvenile. "I tell you I'm trying to compose my soul, and I want this
rampage-round stopped."

"I say what's the use, too!" whined Dolph. "You can't row a biskit
across a puddle of molasses with a couple of toothpicks," he added, with
cook's metaphor for the absolutely hopeless.

Mayo shouted at them with a violence that made hideous din in that
narrow space. "You two men wade across here to me or I'll come after
you with an ax in one hand and a hammer in the other! Damn you, I mean
business!"

They were silent, then there sounded the splash of water and they came,
muttering. They had recognized the ring of desperate resolve in his
command.

Mayo, when he heard their stertorous breathing close at hand, groped
for them and shoved tools into their clutch. He retained the hammer and
chisel for himself.

"That's about all I need you for just now--for tool-racks," he growled.
"Make sure you don't drop those."

The upturned schooner rolled sluggishly, and every now and then the
water swashed across her cabin with extra impetus, making footing
insecure.

"If I tumble down I'll have to drop 'em," whimpered Oolph.

"Then don't come up. Drowning will be an easier death for you," declared
the captain, menacingly. He was sounding the bulkhead with his hammer