ss
very pleasantly for us.

Sylvia was sixteen, and I was fifteen; and the grey-haired captain was
the kindest chaperon.

For the first fortnight we had the most delightful weather; and then it
began to blow a horrid gale. The _May Queen_ pitched frightfully, and
"took in," as the sailors said, "a deal of water."

For three days the storm raged violently. We thought the ship would
never weather it. I don't know what we should have done without Dr.
Atherton. And then quite suddenly the wind died away, and there came a
heavenly calm.

The sea was like a mill-pond. It was beautiful! Sylvia and I began to
breathe again, when, all at once, we felt that ominous something in the
air.

"Thud! thud! thud!" All day long we heard that curious sound--and at
dead of night too, if we happened to be awake. "Thud! thud! thud!"
unceasingly.

The sailors, too, forgot their jocular sayings, and seemed too busy now
to notice us. Some looked flurried, some looked sullen; but all looked
anxious, we thought. And they were working, working, always working away
at the bottom of the ship. And always that "thud! thud! thud!"

And then we learned by accident what the matter was.

"Five feet of water in the well!" It was the captain's voice.

And Dr. Atherton's murmured something that we did not catch.

We were in the cabin, and the door was just ajar. They thought we girls
were up on deck, I suppose. Sylvia flung out her hand and pressed me on
the arm; and then she put her finger on her lip.

"All hands are at the pumps," the captain said. "Their exertions are
counteracting the leak. The water in the well is neither more nor less.
I've just been sounding it again."

"Can't the leak be stopped?" asked Dr. Atherton.

"Yes, if we could find it. We've been creeping about her ribs all the
better part of the morning, but we cannot discover the leak."

"And the water's still coming in?"

"Still coming in. They're working like galley-slaves to keep it under,
but we make no headway at all. I greatly fear that some of her seams
have opened during the gale."

"And that means----"

"That means the water is coming in through numerous apertures," said the
captain grimly.

"Is the _May Queen_ in danger, captain?" asked Dr. Atherton in a steady
voice.

There was a pause. We could hear our own hearts beat. And then:

"I would to Heaven that those girls were not on board!"

"But we are!" It was Sylvia's voice. With a bound she had flung