One man was hanging on over the
starboard side which was hove up; the schooner swept on in cruel danger,
and the skipper might well look stern and white. "We sha'n't save it,"
he growled. Then Ferrier groaned, "Oh, God," for the keel of the smack
at last heaved up, and she went down, down, slowly down, while her
copper showed less and less, till the last fatal sea completed the work
of wrath and ruin.

Ferrier felt that sensation of sickness which I have so often seen shown
by strong men. The skipper said: "We'll heave her to again. You'd better
get below. Your pluck's all right, but an unlucky one might catch you,
and you ain't got the knack of watching for an extra drop o' water same
as us."

Lewis Ferrier went below and found all his friends looking anxious.
Indeed, the clamour was deafening, and the bravest man or woman had good
reason for feeling serious. Marion Dearsley looked at Ferrier with
parted lips, and he could see that she was unable to speak; but her
eyes made the dread inquiry which he expected. He bowed his head, and
the girl covered her face with a tearing sob: "Oh, the fatherless! O
Lord, holy and true, how long? Bless the fatherless!" The poor prostrate
ladies in the further cabin added their moanings to that dreadful wail,
and you may guess that no very cheerful company were gathered in that
dim saloon. Of course they would have been swamped had not the skylights
been covered in, and the low light was oppressive. At six in the morning
the skipper came with a grin and beckoned Mr. Blair into the crew's
cabin.

"I pretended to laugh, sir," said he, "but it's not quite laughing now.
The fog's coming over, and we're just going into cloud after cloud of
it. Don't let either of the ladies peep up again on any account. I'm
afeared o' nothing but collision, but it's regular blind man's holiday
when one o' them comes down."

"I'll see my sister right, Freeman, and I'll come and try if I can have
a peep from your ladder." Then Blair saw a thing which always seems
more impressive than anything else that can be witnessed at sea--except,
perhaps, a snowstorm. A mysterious portent came rolling onward; afar off
it looked like a pale grey wall of inconceivable height, but as it drew
nearer, the wall resolved itself into a wild array of columns, and
eddies, and whirlpools, and great full-bosomed clouds, that rolled and
swam and rose and fell with maddening complexity. Then came a breath of
deadly chillness, and