doomed schooner.

"There she goes!" cried the captain, catching a faint glimpse of the
"Oriole" as she slipped down a great sloping hill of water. "That's
the last of her."

"Shall we give her another round, sir?"

"No; cease firing. She is no doubt broken to pieces by our shot by
this time. You do not see her, do you?"

"No, sir. The searchlight doesn't seem able to find the schooner."

"Then we need trouble ourselves no further about her. It's a good job,
Coates," smiled the captain, rubbing his palms together in keen
satisfaction. "We have rescued the crew of a disabled ship in one of
the worst gales that I ever saw on the Atlantic coast. We have lost
none of our own men and only one of the seamen belonging to the
schooner. Of course I'm sorry that he was lost, but we did all that
human beings could accomplish."

"We did, sir."

At that moment the captain's orderly approached.

"What is it?" demanded the captain, observing that the orderly wished
to say something to him.

"Seaman Sam Hickey asks permission to speak to the commanding officer,
sir."

"What does Seaman Hickey wish to say to me?"

"He did not say, sir."

"I will see him."

Sam, his red hair standing straight up, for he was hatless as well as
coatless still, approached the captain, came to attention and saluted.

"Well, lad, what is it?"

"I have not seen my friend Dan Davis since the boats returned, sir," he
said.

"What's that?"

"I find that Davis did not return in either the whaleboat or the
cutter. He went back to save some one that the girl begged him to
save. I've made inquiry and learn that the somebody was a miserable
parrot."

"Seaman Davis on that schooner?" demanded the captain in a startled
voice.

"Yes, sir, I think so, sir."

"And we have shot the decks from under him with our seven-inch guns!"
groaned the captain.

He immediately ordered that the searchlights try again to pick the
schooner up. But no search revealed her. By reason of the violence of
the gale, the battleship, for her own safety, had been compelled to
steam some distance away. But she lay to throughout the night, and
only when the early daylight revealed nothing of the schooner was she
headed for the Delaware Breakwater.

CHAPTER IV

LOOKING DEATH IN THE FACE

We left Dan curled up in a bunk, wondering how long it would be before
the schooner would go to the bottom.

"What's that?" exclaimed Dan, starting up from the na