the sinking vessel, so strong was the sea.

In the meantime the sailors in whaleboat number one were bending to
their task, their boat drawing slowly toward the distressed ship. It
required heroic effort to drive the boat through that sea. A greater
part of the time the craft was hidden between the great swells, the
powerful searchlight from the battleship being unable to locate them.
Then slowly the boat would rise, dripping, from the sea. It seemed
almost as if the whaleboat were shaking the brine from her shining
sides as she righted herself on the crest of some great wave, poising
there for a few brief seconds, then plunging out of sight.

The whaleboat was the first to reach the lee side of the disabled
schooner. The windward side of a ship is the side on which the wind is
blowing; the lee side, is the opposite side, and is therefore the more
quiet. In a storm a ship is always approached, if possible, on the lee
side.

"What ship is that?" called the officer in charge of the small boats.

"The 'Oriole.'"

"Where from?"

"Rio de Janeiro. Cargo of mahogany."

"Pass a line."

A rope shot over the whaleboat and was quickly made secure. Slowly the
whaleboat was pulled as close to the schooner as it was safe to go. At
the command of the officer in charge, half a dozen sailors climbed up
the rope and leaped to the deck of the "Oriole."

Dan Davis was the first man over the rail.

"How many persons have you on board?"

"Twenty men, a woman and a child. The latter are my wife and
daughter," the master of the craft informed him.

The woman, lashed to the deck house, was clinging to her child, a girl
of some seven years.

Without further questioning, Dan sprang for the deck house, at the same
time motioning to another jackie to come to his assistance. Together
they cast off the lashings; and, grasping the woman and child, led them
toward the lee quarter of the ship.

By this time the cutter also had succeeded in making its way alongside,
and the men of the crew of the "Oriole" began clambering over the side
of the vessel in the effort to reach the life boats.

"Stand back, you men!" commanded Dan, thrusting two sailors aside as
they crowded the woman and the little girl, nearly precipitating them
into the sea.

One of the men attempted to strike the Battleship Boy, and was
instantly knocked down for his pains. A second man came at Dan, but at
that instant the red-haired Sam Hickey was projected