he most
distressing nature.

The discouraging feature of the situation to Miss Lacy was that their
rude support was making no progress at all. They had no means of
propelling it, and, had they possessed such means, no one knew what
course to follow. It looked as if days and nights must be passed on
the raft, until one by one the survivors succumbed or ended their
sufferings by plunging into the sea which they had striven so hard to
escape.

Far away, however, on the verge of the horizon, an object rose dimly to
view, which, after carefully studying for some time, the shipwrecked
people agreed was a small island, but, as we have stated, they were
powerless to propel their craft thither, and could only gaze and sigh
for the refuge that was as much beyond their reach, as though it were a
thousand leagues distant.

"I am going to swim to it!" exclaimed Miss Lacy.

"Are you mad?" demanded the astonished chief-officer; "it is utterly
impossible."

"I prefer to risk it rather than remain here."

"But it is much further off than it seems to be; these waters are full
of sharks and you will never live to swim half the distance. Dismiss
the idea at once."

"Good-by!"

And the brave woman took a header into the sea, and with a long
graceful stroke, that compelled the admiration of every one of the
amazed survivors, began swimming toward the supposed refuge.

But the chief-officer knew more about the difficulties in her way than
she did. She grievously miscalculated the distance, and, though she
was a swimmer of amazing skill and endurance, she began to believe she
had undertaken a task beyond her power of accomplishment.

She swam directly toward the island, husbanding her strength like a
wise person, but making steady progress, until before the afternoon was
half gone, she knew she had placed many a long mile behind her. When
she looked back she could see nothing of the raft and her friends, but
as she rose on the crest of an immense swell, she plainly discerned the
island. It still was in the verge of the horizon, and it was hard for
her to see that she was apparently no nearer to it than when she
started.

Besides this alarming fact, she was threatened by a still greater
peril. As the chief-officer had warned her, the waters abounded with
sharks, of the man-eating species, who were liable to dart forward and
seize her at any moment; but, in recalling her extraordinary
experience, Miss Lacy says that at no