aw that I was not wanted there. I went on deck,
and found that the sailors from the wreck were stowed away in the
dryest places they could find.

I invited them all down into the forward cabin, and assigned the mate
to the spare berth there. The others must sleep on the floor, for we
could do nothing better for them.

"Mr. Mate, where is your captain?" I asked.

"I don't think he came below, sir. He is feeling very badly about the
loss of his vessel," replied the mate. "I will try to find him."

He went on deck with me, and we found him coiled away under the
topgallant forecastle. I invited him to come into the pilot-house, and
he followed me thither.

"I am sorry for your misfortune, Captain," I said, when he had seated
himself abaft the wheel.

"It is a sorry night for me. My vessel is lost, and I have not the
least idea how it happened," he replied, very sadly.

I did my best to comfort him. I saw that he was quite as much exhausted
by his mental sufferings as by his physical exertions. I conducted him
to my state-room, and gave him my berth. In a short time he was asleep.

CHAPTER XIII.

A NIGHT LOST IN THE STORM.

At eleven o'clock we changed the course of the Sylvania to south-west
half-west, which brought the gale nearly on the beam. The wind was
blowing but little, if anything, short of a hurricane. The great
billows struck against the side of the vessel and the house on deck
with tremendous force. It seemed just as though immense boulders were
hurled against the planking that enclosed my state-room, the galley,
and the engine-room. The sea swept over the hurricane-deck, and struck
heavily upon the planks overhead.

Suddenly I heard a noise over my head, as I stood at the wheel, which
sounded like the report of a heavy cannon. I thought the sea had broken
a hole through. In another instant the steamer was rolling with double
the violence of a few minutes before.

"What was that noise, Hop?" I asked, when I saw that no water was
pouring down upon us.

"It was the foresail, sir; it has been blown out of the bolt-ropes,"
replied Hop, coolly; and he seemed to be incapable of anything like
fear. "We have lost the reefed foresail, and that is what makes her
roll so much worse than she did five minutes ago."

Undoubtedly he was right. The sail had steadied her more than we could
have imagined; and now she rolled like a log in a mill-race. The sea
struck the side of my state-room as though a ro