raid_!" returned Miss Onslow. "Why do you use that word?
If there are any people there, you will rescue them, will you not?"

"Of course--_if we can_!" answered the skipper. "But that is just the
point: _can_ we rescue them? Mr Murgatroyd's message stated that the
wreck appears to be in a sinking condition. Now, if that surmise of the
mate's turns out to be correct, the question is: Will she remain afloat
until the gale moderates and the sea goes down sufficiently to admit of
boats being lowered? If not, it may turn out to be a very bad job for
the poor souls; eh, Mr Conyers?"

"It may indeed," I answered, "for it is certain that no boat of ours
could live for five minutes in the sea that is now running. And if that
barometer,"--pointing to a very fine instrument that hung, facing us, in
the skylight--"is to be believed, the gale is not going to break just
_yet_."

"Oh dear, but that is dreadful!" the girl exclaimed, clasping her hands
tightly together in her agitation--and one could see, by the whitening
of her lips and the horror expressed in her widely-opened eyes, that her
emotion was not simulated; it was thoroughly real and genuine. "I never
thought of that! Do I understand you to mean, then, Captain, that even
when we reach the wreck it may be impossible to help those on board?"

"Yes," answered Dacre; "you may understand that, Miss Onslow. Of course
we shall stand by them until the gale breaks; and if, when we get
alongside, we find that their condition is very critical, some special
effort to rescue them will have to be made. But, while doing all that
may be possible, I must take care not to unduly risk my own ship, and
the lives which have been intrusted to my charge; and, keeping that
point in view, it may prove impossible to do anything to help them."

"And you think there is no hope that the gale will soon abate?" she
demanded.

"I see no prospect of it, as yet," answered the skipper. "The barometer
is the surest guide a sailor has, in respect of the weather; and, as Mr
Conyers just now remarked, ours affords not a particle of hope."

"Oh, how cruel--how relentlessly cruel--the wind and the sea are!"
exclaimed this girl whose pride I had hitherto deemed superior to any
other emotion. "I _hope_--oh, Captain, I _most fervently hope_ that you
will be able to save those poor creatures, who must now be suffering all
the protracted horrors of a lingering death!"

"You may trust me, my dear you