asleep? I'll wake them," he said; and he crept
cautiously to arouse Mrs and Mary O'Halloran, as Mark was rousing his
father, his mother waking too.

"Breakers?" said the captain. "Well, I have been expecting it for
hours. Can you make anything out, Gregory!"

"No, captain. All's like pitch ahead."

The captain uttered a sigh, and as the rest were roused, and realised
what was taking place, they received it all with a dull quiet
resignation, as if death would be almost welcome now.

The moments passed, and right and left the breakers roared, seeming so
near that they fancied they saw them, and then as they rode on all at
once there was a roar of breaking water right ahead.

But it was impossible to change the boat's course, and sitting stern and
with his teeth set, Mr Gregory bent at the tough ash oar, as the boat
refused to swerve a little to the right, where he thought the roar of
breakers was less loud.

Then, with a shock which seemed to electrify all on board, the keel
struck upon a rock, there was a crushing grating sound, a roar of
waters, a wave leaped in, deluging all afresh, and the gig rose high in
the air, and then plunged down as if into the depths of the ocean never
to rise again.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

HOW HELP CAME IN TIME OF NEED.

The shock was so sudden that the half-awakened and helpless occupants of
the boat made no effort to move, but clung to the thwarts of the boat,
while the mast, with its heavy rain-saturated sail, snapped off short
and fell over the side, dragging by its cords, as the boat rose again
after its dive, gliding up a hillock of water, halted for a moment on
the summit, and then glided down again.

This was repeated two or three times, and each with less violence, after
which, to the surprise and joy of all, the little vessel rose and fell
easily as the sea undulated, the officers knowing at once that they had
struck upon a reef, which they had but just touched, and then had been
carried over it into the calm water of a lagoon, where they rocked
peacefully and safely, while only a short distance away the waves were
thundering upon the coral rock, and fretting and raging as they roared,
apparently wroth at not being able to reach their escaping prey.

"No water to signify," said the mate, as Billy Widgeon and Small baled
hard till their dippers scraped the bottom without success.

The captain did not speak, but pressed his wife's hand, while for the
first time M