d, women fell fainting on the deck. Someone had shouted,
"Man overboard!" which was taken up vociferously in every key by, at
least, a hundred throats, and in less than a minute the engines were
silent, the vessel moving only with its headway. Then, with a blast of
steam, they were reversed. Meanwhile, the after part of the hurricane
deck, and the poop of the second saloon, were packed with eager souls
scanning the surface of the water in the hope of catching sight of their
unfortunate fellow-passenger.

Again the vessel stopped, and a boat was lowered.

"Wonderful presence of mind," the doctor said to Joyce as she, too,
anxiously strained her eyes to look for the reappearance of Jack's form
in the water, which had been seen, and then lost sight of. "Did you hear
how a fellow kept his head when he saw young Darling go over, sending a
life-buoy the same moment after him? Splendid, I call that!"

Joyce was deeply impressed. "He has probably saved Jack's life! Good
man! does any one know where my sister is?"

Kitty was nowhere to be seen. Joyce presently found her in the saloon
crouching on a sofa with her hands over her ears.

"He is drowned, I know he is drowned, and I shall never see him any
more! I have killed him just as surely as if I sent him over with my own
hands!--oh, let me die!" She was beside herself, and her suffering would
not only have more than healed Jack's injured feelings, but have made
him sue for pardon.

Joyce took her in her arms and they clung together, fearful of what they
should presently hear. The shrieks of the women and children were
mingled with the voices of the men shouting instructions from the deck
to the officer in the boat. Nothing definite could be gleaned from the
excited ejaculations of the onlookers.

"What made me do it!--why did I let myself behave so!" Kitty cried
shivering from the force of her emotions. "I shall never be able to ask
his forgiveness for my hardness, and yet in my heart I was melted
towards him and longing to tell him so,--only waiting till the evening
when we could be more alone. Oh, I am terribly punished for daring to
punish my poor Jack!"

"We are not to give up hope, dearest, but are to will with might and
main that he be saved. It all helps. Honor Bright says it is
scientifically possible to impose will-power on the forces of nature. It
is a way God works for us and with us."

"It is useless to tell me all that when I cannot even think!" wailed
K