e would break into fragments.

"The foremast has gone," Stephen said presently. "I suppose it went over
her bows when she struck. I am afraid none of the men have escaped. I
can't make out the head of the vessel at all."

"They may have been washed ashore; but it is probable that the fall of the
mast imprisoned them," the captain said; "and as the stern is raised a
good many feet, they must have been drowned at once. Poor fellows, there
were some good men among them."

"I wish we had had them all aft," Steve exclaimed in a tone of deep
regret. "Of course, we never thought of this; and indeed there was but
small room for them in your little cabin. It seemed that death would come
to us all together, and that their chances in the fo'c's'le were as
hopeless as ours in the stern cabin."

"It is the will of God," the Peruvian said philosophically; "and it is
probable their turn has come only a few hours before ours."

They sat silently for a long time. At last Stephen said: "The sea is
certainly going down, and I can make out the outlines of the land. I think
day will soon be breaking. We must have slept a good many hours before she
struck."

He took out his watch, but it was too dark to see the face. He opened the
case and felt the position of the hands: "It is half-past three," he said.
"In another half-hour we shall have light enough to see where we are."

Gradually the dawn spread over the sky, and they could make out that the
shore was some three hundred yards away, and that trees came down almost
to the water's edge. They lay at the mouth of a small bay. As the captain
had supposed, the ship's bows were under water, and only a few inches of
the top-gallant fo'c's'le were to be seen. Another half-hour and the sun
was up. Long before this Stephen had explored the wreck astern. Several
feet had been torn off, and the water flowed freely in and out of the
cabin. It was evident that the ship had been carried on the crest of the
great wave beyond the highest point of the reef across the mouth of the
bay, and to this fact she in some degree owed her preservation, as the
waves broke some twenty yards astern of her, and so spent a considerable
portion of their force before they struck her. Looking astern, the sea was
still extremely heavy, but it no longer presented the angry appearance it
had done on the previous day. The wind had almost dropped, the waves were
no longer crested with white foam.

"In an hour or two we s