ointed
her out to Peter. "Yes, father, sure enough there is a sail, and a
large craft too, though she has but little canvas set: we are nearing
her, I fancy."

The stranger was, however, nearing us, and as we occasionally got a
glimpse of her through our glasses, we saw that she had carried away her
main-topmast and mizzenmast, and that she was labouring much, running
before the wind with only a close-reefed fore-topsail set. As far as we
could judge she looked indeed in some distress. On she came towards us.
The wind now again increased, and the seas became more dangerous.
Fearing that one might break over us, I sent Mary and Susan and the boys
below again, and secured the hatches over them; which done, we passed
life lines fore and aft, to give us a holdfast in case of accidents.
The stranger drew nearer and nearer. We now saw how deep she was in the
water, and how terribly she was labouring. I watched her with double
anxiety, on her account as well as on our own. In another ten minutes
she would be down upon us, and from the course she was steering, it
would be a miracle if we escaped destruction. Just then a signal of
distress was run up, but the flag was instantly blown away, and the next
minute she gave a plunge forward, and before she rose her remaining mast
went over the bows, where the spars hung seemingly engaged in battering
them in. Scarcely had this occurred than she broached to, and lay like
a helpless log in the trough of the seas. Still she was fearfully near,
and I was far from satisfied that she would not drive down upon us, and
if so, inevitably with one touch send us to the bottom. Our only chance
of escape was to make sail, but the alternative was a dangerous one. I
was preparing to do this when we saw those on board stretching out their
hands towards us imploring help. It was a piteous sight, for none could
we afford, and all her own boats had, we saw, been washed away. Now, as
we mounted to the summit of a sea, she began, it seemed, to climb up
another watery height, but a still vaster billow came rolling on, and
thundering over her deck; down she went beneath it, and the next moment,
when we looked, not a trace of her was to be seen except a few planks
and spars, which rose to the surface out of the vortex she formed as she
sank. Yes, as we continued to gaze, between us and where she had been
floated a grating, and to it clung a human form. He was alive, for he
turned his head towa