at ship pumps, working to furious
capacity, were likely to give out at any moment.

He stationed a seaman with lead and line on the stairs leading down to
each compartment, with instructions to take frequent soundings and to
report sharply to the deck.

The "Gloucester's" rafts, too, were now overboard. On these huddled those
of the wounded or convalescing soldiers who were better able to take care
of themselves.

But not a single Red Cross woman had yet gone over the side. Much as some
of the wounded might need attendance on the rescue craft or in the small
boats, those left helpless behind needed the women of mercy still more!

A slow gain was still being made on the water in the two compartments. If
the pumps held out, and if the patches did not give way, there might yet
be a fair chance to save life. But Dave knew the dangers that confronted
all hands left behind, even when he could make out the hull of the
oncoming steamship, and saw that she was moving at fullest speed.

"We should win out, don't you think?" demanded Captain Senby, anxiously.
"I've never lost a ship."

"At least we stand a fair chance to win out," Dave answered, frankly.
"Any one of three or four things might happen to us yet and send us to
the bottom."

Darrin spent most of his time inspecting the canvas patches. Between
times he anxiously watched the relief ship. He could see, by glass, when
she was four miles away, that her davits were swung out and her
boat-crews in place.

"All depends on how we hold together for the next half or three-quarters
of an hour," he told Captain Senby.

There were still some two hundred patients who would have to be moved on
stretchers. These were brought to the upper deck until the stretchers all
but blocked passage.

What a cheer went up from those at the rail as the steamship, an Italian
craft, lay to and began to lower her boats! The small boats from the
hospital ship, the "Grigsby" and the mine-sweepers had already gone
forward to meet her. As fast as they could move in to either side gangway
these boats discharged their temporary passengers, then quickly returned
to the "Gloucester."

For an hour all the small boats plied back and forth, the rescuers using
all their nerve and muscle power in their efforts at speed.

Shivering, for he was drenched up to the waist, Dave stood by, receiving
the reports of the leadsmen in the two compartments. The best work of the
canvas patches had been done. They