ventured to swim back in search of something
substantial enough to support my weight and that of Nobs as well. I
had gotten well over the area of the wreck when not a half-dozen yards
ahead of me a lifeboat shot bow foremost out of the ocean almost its
entire length to flop down upon its keel with a mighty splash. It must
have been carried far below, held to its mother ship by a single rope
which finally parted to the enormous strain put upon it. In no other
way can I account for its having leaped so far out of the water--a
beneficent circumstance to which I doubtless owe my life, and that of
another far dearer to me than my own. I say beneficent circumstance
even in the face of the fact that a fate far more hideous confronts us
than that which we escaped that day; for because of that circumstance I
have met her whom otherwise I never should have known; I have met and
loved her. At least I have had that great happiness in life; nor can
Caspak, with all her horrors, expunge that which has been.

So for the thousandth time I thank the strange fate which sent that
lifeboat hurtling upward from the green pit of destruction to which it
had been dragged--sent it far up above the surface, emptying its water
as it rose above the waves, and dropping it upon the surface of the
sea, buoyant and safe.

It did not take me long to clamber over its side and drag Nobs in to
comparative safety, and then I glanced around upon the scene of death
and desolation which surrounded us. The sea was littered with wreckage
among which floated the pitiful forms of women and children, buoyed up
by their useless lifebelts. Some were torn and mangled; others lay
rolling quietly to the motion of the sea, their countenances composed
and peaceful; others were set in hideous lines of agony or horror.
Close to the boat's side floated the figure of a girl. Her face was
turned upward, held above the surface by her life-belt, and was framed
in a floating mass of dark and waving hair. She was very beautiful. I
had never looked upon such perfect features, such a divine molding
which was at the same time human--intensely human. It was a face
filled with character and strength and femininity--the face of one who
was created to love and to be loved. The cheeks were flushed to the
hue of life and health and vitality, and yet she lay there upon the
bosom of the sea, dead. I felt something rise in my throat as I looked
down upon that radiant vision, an