n, Peter, you would not go in the boat if one was lowered?" I
observed.

"Wait till the captain says what he wants done," he answered calmly.
"If he thinks a boat can live, and wants volunteers, it's my duty to go,
you know. Remember, Jack, obey first, and calculate risk afterwards."

Peter's predictions as to the fate of the Spanish ship were fulfilled
sooner even than he had expected. That moment, while we were looking at
her, she settled lower and lower in the water; she rolled still more
heavily; her bow looked as if about to rise, but instead her stem lifted
high--up it went. There seemed a chasm yawning for her. Into it she
plunged, and down, down she went--the waves wildly rushing over her
decks, and scattering the shrieking multitude assembled on them far and
wide over the foaming ocean; mothers, children, husbands, wives, lovers,
and friends, the priests and their disciples, were rudely torn asunder,
and sent hither and thither. Numbers went down in the vortex of the
huge ship--the men at the pumps, the drunken seamen, some who had clung
madly to the rigging. Others supported themselves on anything which
could float; and brave swimmers struck out for dear life.

"I can't stand this," cried our captain, unconscious that he was
speaking aloud; "we must try at all risks to save the poor wretches."

"I'll go," cried the second mate, Harry Gale, a fine, quiet,
gentleman-reared young man as ever I met.

"I'm one with you, Mr Gale," cried Peter Poplar, springing aft to the
falls of the lee-quarter-boat, the only one which could be lowered.
"Bear a hand here, mates; there'll no time to be lost!"

"Hold fast!" shouted the captain. "No hurry, my men; those who go clear
the boat. The mates will stand by the falls with Jackson and Farr. All
ready now!--Lower away!"

The captain gave the word, so that the boat touched the water just at
the best time. Peter Poplar stood in the bows, boat-hook in hand, and
moved off; Mr Gale steered; the three other men were the strongest of
the ship's company; and truly it required all the care and seamanship
mortal man could possess to keep a boat alive in such a boiling caldron
as the wide Atlantic then was. I was very anxious for Peter's safety,
for he was indeed my friend. I feared also for the rest. I was fully
alive to the danger of the expedition they were on.

The boat, keeping under the lee of the brig, dropped down towards the
scene of the catastrophe. So fie