nts of the brig.

"Never mind what has happened," answered I. "What is done, is done, and
cannot be helped. What you have now to do is to get down the last reef
in those topsails, and take in the fore-topmast staysail, when we will
heave-to. Let go your fore and main-topsail halliards, man your
reef-tackles, and then away aloft, all hands of you, before worse
happens!"

The fellows, by this time quite sober, and fully alive to the perils of
their situation, needed no second bidding, but sprang about the deck
with all the eager, impetuous haste of men fighting for their lives; and
in less time than I could have believed possible they had bowsed out the
reef-tackles and were in the fore rigging, on their way aloft to
complete the operation of reefing the fore-topsail. O'Gorman set a good
example by himself taking the weather yardarm and passing the earring,
and all hands were busily engaged in knotting the points when another
mountainous sea came swooping savagely down upon us with upreared,
hissing crest. I saw that it must inevitably break aboard us, and
uttered a loud yell of warning to the hands aloft, who raised an
answering shout of dismay as they gazed in horror at the oncoming liquid
hill, the crest of which must have been very nearly as high as
themselves. Some of them, abandoning their task, sprang for the
rigging, and, by the exercise of superhuman agility, actually contrived
to reach the top; but the rest remained upon the yard to gaze,
apparently paralysed with terror. The poor little brig seemed to
shudder, like a sentient thing, as the great wall of water crashed down
upon her, burying her to the foremast; and then I saw the whole mast
buckle like a fishing-rod when a strong, heavy fish begins to fight for
his life, there was a crash of timber as the topmast snapped short off
at the cap, and the next instant away went the whole of the top-hamper
over the side, flinging far into the raging sea the four unfortunates
who had remained clinging to the yardarms! As for the sea, it swept
right aft, filling the decks to the rail, smashing to splinters the boat
that was stowed on the main hatch, and carrying away the entire bulwarks
on both sides as far aft as the main rigging. By the time that the
decks were clear of water, and we were free to think of other matters
than our own individual safety, the four men who had been flung
overboard--and one of whom was O'Gorman--had disappeared for ever, and
we ha