and the terrible turmoil of waters that
leaped and seethed between the wreck and the cliffs, seemed to all on
board, including the captain himself, to be impassable.

At last it became necessary to make an effort, for it was soon
discovered that the vessel hung on the edge of a ledge, outside of which
the water deepened suddenly to twenty fathoms, and a slip back into that
would have been equivalent to certain and immediate death to all on
board.

"My lads," said the captain to the crew, most of whom were assembled
with the passengers near the port bow, where the preparations for
escaping were going on, "we must have a man to go ashore with that line.
I cannot swim myself, else I would not ask for a volunteer. Come; who
has got the heart to do a gallant deed, and save these women and
children?"

He turned as he spoke, and glanced at the female passengers and
children, who crowded under the lee of the cook-house, wet, dishevelled,
and terrified, Aileen and her musical friend being among them.

There was no response at first. The men turned with doubtful looks at
the furious sea, in the midst of whose white surges black forbidding
rocks seemed to rise and disappear, and the surface of which had by that
time become much cumbered with portions of wreckage.

"If I could only swim," growled the boatswain, "I'd try, but I can't
float no more than a stone."

Others, who looked stout and bold enough to make the venture, seemed to
think it might be better to stick to the ship until the sea should go
down. Indeed one of them said as much, but the captain interrupted him,
and was about to make another appeal, when there was a movement in the
crowd, and one of the sub-engineers pushed towards him with the
information that a volunteer was ready, and would appear immediately.

"Who is it?" asked the captain.

"Mr Berrington, sir; he's getting ready."

"The chief engineer!" exclaimed the captain. "Good; if there's a man in
the ship can do it, he is the man."

Aileen, standing somewhat back in the crowd, thought she had caught a
familiar sound!

"Who is going to make the venture?" she inquired of a man near her.

"The chief engineer, Miss, I believe."

At the moment the crowd opened and our hero came forward, clothed only
in a shirt and duck trousers. His face was not streaked with
professional paint on _this_ occasion. It beamed with the flush and the
latent fire of one who feels that he has made up his mind deli