ll she was
close to, let himself down into her, holding Stella firmly with one arm.
Needham and Tim dropped safely with their burdens at the same time.
Mr Bradshaw still remained on board.

"Let me go, sir," cried Needham, "I will help him;" and the next moment
he was again on deck. Seizing Mr Bradshaw by the hand, he watched the
proper opportunity and dragged him down into the boat, both falling,
though being caught by the men they were not much hurt. Jack then
sheered the boat off from the wreck, and ordered his men to pull away
towards the brig. Scarcely had they got clear than the ship's stern was
seen to lift, and her bows plunging into the next sea which came rolling
up, it rushed over her deck foaming and hissing, she in a few seconds
disappearing beneath the surface, the boat having only just got beyond
the influence of the vortex she created. There was no time to ask
questions. Jack, being at the helm, could with difficulty attend to the
two ladies, who lay in the stern sheets, Stella still attending on her
friend. The boat was quickly again alongside the brig, and Jack and
Needham lifted the two ladies safely on board. Mr Bradshaw was then
helped up the side by the seamen, and the boat being hoisted in, the
brig again made sail and stood on her proper course. The ladies were at
once conveyed to Jack's cabin, and McTavish being sent for, his
appliances soon restored Miss Bradshaw to consciousness.

So much taken up had Stella been in attending her friend, that she had
had no time to thank her preserver, or to speak a word on any other
subject. Jack had also been too fully occupied to ask questions. Mr
Bradshaw now told him that the _Carib_ had been struck suddenly by the
gale, and her masts carried away. At the same time the captain and his
mates, with several of the crew, had either been washed or struck
overboard, or killed by the falling masts; and that the rest of the
crew, left without officers, had, when they believed the ship to be
sinking, taken the only boat which remained. As they had previously
broken open the spirit-room, they were probably, before long,
overwhelmed by the heavy sea. "We would not have gone with them, had
they invited us to do so, for we did not then believe that the ship was
about to founder," continued Mr Bradshaw. "When we discovered the
awful truth, having no means of escaping, we gave ourselves up as lost,
and when you appeared we were awaiting the event which we