Whether or not a single one of the soaked, shivering beings clinging to
the deck would survive it, God alone knew. The chances of their escape
were as one in a thousand--and yet they hoped.

There were not many left now. Captain Sterling was gone, and
Lieutenants Mercer and Sutton. Besides the major and Eric, only
Lieutenants Roebuck and Moore of the cabin passengers were still to be
seen. Of the soldiers and crew, almost all had been swept away; but
Captain Reefwell still held to his post upon the quarter-deck by
keeping tight hold to a belaying-pin.

The distance between the bars and the beach was soon crossed, and the
long line of foaming billows became distinct through the driving mist.

"Don't lose your grip on Prince, my boy," called the major to Eric.
"We'll strike in a second, and then--"

But before he could finish the sentence the ship struck the beach with
fearful force, and was instantly buried under a vast mountain of water
that hurled itself upon her as though it had long been waiting for the
chance to destroy her. When the billow had spent its force, the decks
were clear. Not a human form was visible where a moment before more
than a score of men had been clinging for dear life. Hissing and
seething like things of life, and sending their spray and spume high
into the mist-laden air, the merciless breakers bore their victims off
to cast them contemptuously upon the beach. Then, ere they could
scramble ashore, they would be caught up again and carried off by the
recoil of the wave, to be once more dashed back as though they were the
playthings of the water.

The major and Eric were separated in the wild confusion; but Eric was
not parted from Prince. About his brawny neck the mastiff wore a stout
leathern collar, and to this Eric clung with a grip that not even the
awful violence of the breakers could unloose. Rather did it make his
sturdy fingers but close the tighter upon the leathern band.

Into the boiling flood the boy and dog were plunged together, and
bravely they battled to make the shore. The struggle would be a
tremendous one for them, and the issue only too doubtful. The slope of
the beach was very gradual, and there was a long distance between where
the brig struck and the dry land. Wholly blinded and half-choked by
the driving spray, Eric could do nothing to direct his course. But he
could have had no better pilot than the great dog, whose unerring
instinct pointed him strai