open the
door, and stood confronting the astonished pair. "We are here. And as we
are here, Captain Maitland, oh! don't, don't keep us in the dark!"

"Good heavens!" ejaculated the doctor.

And the captain said in his severest tones:

"Young lady, you've been eavesdropping, I see. Let me tell you that's a
thing I won't allow."

"Oh! Captain Maitland, is the ship in danger?" I cried.

But the captain only glared at me. He looked excessively annoyed.

Then Sylvia ran up and put her hand upon his arm.

"We could not help hearing," she said. "If the ship is in danger really,
it is better for us to know. Please, don't be vexed with us; but we'd
rather be told the truth. We--we----"

"Are not babies," I put in, with my heart going pit-a-pat.

"Nor cowards," added Sylvia, with a lip that trembled a little.

It made the captain cough.

"The--the _May Queen_ has sprung a leak?" she said.

"You heard me say so, I suppose."

"And the ship is in danger, Captain Maitland?"

"Can you trust me, young lady?" was his answer.

Sylvia put her hand in his.

"You know we trust you," she said.

He caught it in a hearty grasp; and gave me an encouraging smile.

"Thank you for that, my child. The _May Queen's_ got five feet of water
in her well, because she got damaged in that gale. So far we're managing
to pump the water out as fast as the water comes in. D'you follow me?"

"Yes," fluttered to her lips.

"So far, so good. Don't worry. Try not to trouble your heads about this
thing at all. Just say to yourselves, 'The captain's at the helm.' All
that can be done _is_ being done, young ladies. And," pointing upwards,
"the other CAPTAIN'S aloft."

He was gone. In a dazed way I heard Dr. Atherton saying something to
Sylvia. And a few minutes after that he, too, had disappeared. "Gone,"
Sylvia said in an awe-struck whisper, "to work in his turn at the
pumps."

No need to wonder now at that unceasing "Thud! thud!" The noise of it
not only sounded in our ears, it struck us like blows on our hearts.

We crept up on deck. We could breathe there. We could see. Oh! how awful
was the thought of going down, down--drowning in the cabin below!

Air, and light, and God's sky was above. And we prayed to the CAPTAIN
aloft.

The sea was so calm that danger, after having weathered that fearful
gale, seemed almost impossible to us. The blue water reflected the blue
heaven above; and when the setting sun cast a rosy light over the sk