l the ship righted.

"Lie snug, young 'un," said his rescuer, "for them 'white squalls' ain't
to be sneezed at, that's a fact. Look at my shirt."

This was easier said than done, for honest Bill had no shirt left to
look at, except the collar and wristbands, all the rest having been torn
clean away.

But as Austin glanced round him he saw other proofs of the wind's force
even more convincing than this. Two of the boats had been literally
smashed to pieces, the strong-iron davits that held them being twisted
like pin-wire. Down in the engine-room the flying open of the furnace
doors had flooded the whole room with blazing coal, and four of the
tubes had burst at once, scalding several firemen so severely that they
had to be carried to the surgeon forthwith.

Suddenly a cry for help was heard from the wheel-house. Three or four
brave fellows rushed across the reeling deck at the risk of their lives,
and tearing open the door, found one quartermaster lying senseless and
bleeding in a corner, while the other, with a broken arm, was actually
keeping the wheel steady with _the remaining hand and his knee_, which
he had thrust between the spokes!

But the stout-hearted crew, not a whit daunted, coolly set about
repairing damages. The injured men were carried below, the decks cleared
of the fragments of wreck, and the coals drawn from the furnaces, into
which the firemen, swathed in wet blankets, crept by turns along a plank
(relieving one another as the stifling heat overpowered them) to close
the flues again by hammering strong wooden plugs into the leaks.

By twelve o'clock the gale was at its height. Even with four men at the
wheel, the _Arizona_ could barely hold her own against the tremendous
seas that came thundering upon her like falling rocks, and old Herrick
himself began to look grave.

"Get out a drag!" shouted the officer of the watch.

The boatswain repeated the order, to the no small amazement of our hero,
who, having always associated a drag with the wheel of a coach, was
puzzled to imagine how it could be applied to a ship.

But he was not long in finding out. Pieces of timber from the broken
boats, worn out sails, old iron, and various odds and ends were hastily
gathered into a heap, lashed together with chains, and launched
overboard, with two strong hawsers attached. The chains and pieces of
iron made the buoyant mass sink just deep enough, to steady the vessel,
and keep her head up to the wind, wh