a strange shrinking; but I fancied
that I could detect a faint smile at the corner of his lip, and this
touched me home, and made me speak at once.

"Very well," I said. "I'll go with you, sir."

"That's right, my lad," he said, laying his hand on my shoulder. "Why,
Dale, you will be chief mate of some ship, young as you are, almost
before I get to be captain. But we won't waste time passing
compliments. What should you say if we find that the old ship is strong
enough to carry us into port?"

"Oh, it is impossible," I cried.

"Not so impossible perhaps after all; but we are getting near, and we'll
see."

"But suppose she is so near sinking that the addition of our weight
proves to be enough to make her begin settling down?"

"Well, I should be greatly surprised if it did," he said with a smile.
"But we'll be on the safe side. As soon as we mount on deck through the
cabin-window, the boat shall be backed out of the way of danger, and our
first task shall be to cut loose a couple of the life-buoys. Then, if
the ship drags us down, we shall be sure to rise again and float."

I could not help a shudder at the idea of being dragged down in such a
horrible vortex, perhaps to be entangled in some part of the rigging,
and never rise again; and seeing what I was thinking, Mr Brymer
laughed.

"No fear, my lad. She will not sink now, unless there is a storm;
perhaps not even then. Row right round, my lads," he continued to Bob
Hampton and Barney; and we made a circuit of the ship, passing from
astern right forward, without the hull showing any damage; and though
Mr Brymer touched her just about opposite to where the principal body
of smoke arose, there was no perceptible heat to be felt. Then as we
pressed on under the bowsprit, I looked up at the bob-stay and the
rigging about that spritsail where I had climbed; and we began to go
back on the other side, to find the hull intact, and no sign of damage,
but here the side was decidedly warm. Then on to the stern and under
the first window, where a rope was still hanging out.

"Will you go first, Dale, or shall I?" said Mr Brymer.

For answer I began to climb, and in a very short time reached the window
and crept in.

Then the rope was drawn taut again, and the mate climbed in after me,
turned, and spoke gently--

"Row aft about a hundred yards, my lads. It is only for form's sake."
And as the men began to paddle gently away, he said to me quietly--

"The