and again we
shouted at the top of our voices, but no reply came back. The wind
shrieked, the billows roared and crashed, and the shadow of death seemed
to be lowering on us from the black sky overhead.

"How are we going?" Captain Rudstone asked of the first mate, who was at
one of the oars.

"Badly enough, sir," the man replied. "It's no use trying to keep off
the shore, pull as hard as we may."

"Is there no hope?" Flora asked of me in a whisper.

"Very little," I replied hoarsely. "It is better to prepare for the
worst."

I put one arm round her, and she voluntarily snuggled closer to me. Thus
we sat for twenty minutes or half an hour, expecting constantly to be
capsized and flung into the sea. The storm still raged with undiminished
violence, but it was growing a little lighter now, and as often as we
rose to the top of the swell we could see the faint blur of the land far
off. It was an ominous sight, for most of us knew what the shore of the
bay was like in a tempest. Wind and tide were drifting us steadily
nearer.

"Look! Look!" Captain Rudstone suddenly shouted. "Pull hard about, men!
Quick, for your lives!"

But it was too late to avert the danger. I had scarcely glanced behind
me, where I saw a mighty wave, yards high, rolling forward swiftly, when
the jolly-boat was pitched far into the air. It hovered an instant on
the crest of the wall of water and then turned bottom up, shooting us
all down the slope into a foamy trough.

I lost my grip of Flora--how I do not know--and was sucked deep below
the surface. When by hard struggling I came to the top and looked about,
I experienced a moment of sickening horror, for I could see nothing of
the girl; but suddenly she rose within a few feet of me, her loosened
hair streaming on the water, and by a desperate effort I reached and
caught hold of her.

It was just then, as we were both at the mercy of the sea, that a
strange and providential thing happened. A heavy spar, which had
doubtless been washed from the sinking ship, floated alongside of us. I
seized it firmly with one hand, while I supported Flora with the other.
We were hurled up on a wave, and from the crest I saw the capsized
jolly-boat some distance off. Two men were clinging to the keel, but I
was unable to recognize them. The next instant the wind seemed to fall a
little and shift to another quarter, bringing with it a gray fog that
settled speedily and thickly on all sides of us. But I had c