rs O'Halloran displayed emotion by taking her half-numbed
child to her breast, and sobbing aloud.

The major did not move, but laid one hand on Mark's knee and gave it a
firm grip, sighing hard the while, and then there was silence for a
time, as the gig rocked easily in the darkness, while the thunderous
roar of the breakers grew less violent; and, instead of being deluged
with spray as every billow curved over, there was a sensation as of
shelter and warmth which pointed to the fact that the boat must have
drifted behind rocks as into some channel; but the intense darkness
rendered everything obscure.

"Cheer-ri-ly, mates," said a voice suddenly, as a slight splashing was
heard. "We're not a-going to be drowned--dead this here time, for I've
just touched bottom with the hitcher."

"Now, my lads," said the captain gravely, "our lives have been spared,
thank Heaven! and we are to see the light of another day."

There was again silence, with the muffled roar of the breakers farther
away than ever, and as the boat rocked away slowly with the same gentle
motion, the wet, cold, and misery were forgotten by one after another,
the darkness helping, the occupants of the little craft dropped off to
sleep, one of the last being Mark.

Cramped, faint, and miserable, the lad woke at last with a start, to lie
with his eyes open staring straight up at the blue sunlit sky, his mind
for the time being a perfect blank. In fact it was some minutes before
he realised that he was in the bottom of the boat, with his head resting
upon Bruff's curly coat, and that Jack was huddled up close to him
staring down into his face with an inquiring look, which, being
interpreted, really meant, Where is the food?

Mark struggled up so painfully that he felt ready to lie down again; but
he persevered and knelt in the bottom of the boat, to see as strange a
sight as had ever before met his eyes. For, in spite of their cramped
positions, every soul on board was sleeping heavily, the men in the
bottom of the boat forward making pillows of each other, the tired
ladies clinging together in the stern, and the officers amidships--the
extreme stern with its limited space having been left to Mark, Bruff,
and the monkey.

Haggard, pale, some with faces blackened with powder, others with their
heads bound up with handkerchiefs and bandages which showed the
necessity for their application, and all in the sleep which comes of
utter exhaustion.

The la