thither in alarm and confusion, but Cornelys
Jensen brought them to order in a few moments, while Hatchett and half a
dozen of the men proceeded to reassure the passengers and to keep them
from crowding on to the deck. All this happened in shorter time than I
can take to set it down, and yet after a fashion, too, it seemed
endless.

Captain Marmaduke rushed up to the watch and caught him by the
shoulder. 'What have you done?' he said; 'you have lost the ship!'

The man shook himself away from the Captain's hand.

'It was no fault of mine,' he said between his teeth. 'I took all the
care I could. I saw all this froth at a distance, and I asked the
steersman what it was, and he told me that it was but the sea showing
white under the light of the moon.'

Captain Marmaduke gave a little groan of despair.

'What is to be done?' he asked. 'Where are we?'

'God only knows where we are,' the man answered, still in that sullen,
shamefaced way. 'But for sure we are fast upon a bank that I never heard
tell of ere this night.'

As they were thus talking, and all around were full of consternation, I
saw that Marjorie had come up from below and was standing very still by
the companion head. She had flung a great cloak on over her night-rail,
and though her face was pale in the moonlight she was as calm as if she
were in church. When I came nigh her she asked me, in a low, firm voice,
what had happened.

I told her all that I knew--how the ship had by mischance run on some
bank through the whiteness of the moonlight misleading the steersman.
With another woman, maybe, I should have striven to make as light as
possible of the matter, but with Marjorie I knew that there was no such
need. I told her all that had chanced and of the peril we were in, as I
should have done to a man.

[Illustration: "SHE HAD FLUNG A GREAT CLOAK ON."]

When I had done speaking she said very quietly: 'Is there any hope for
the ship?'

I shook my head. 'I am very much afraid----' I began.

She interrupted me with a little sigh, and stepped forward to where
Captain Marmaduke stood giving his orders very composedly. Lancelot was
busy with Jensen in reassuring the women-folk and getting the men-folk
into order. I must say that they all behaved very well. With many of the
men, old soldiers and sailors as they were, it was natural enough to
carry themselves with coolness in time of peril, but the women showed no
less bravely. This, indeed, was largely