it?" the girl sprang from the seat.

"From your brother. They've been wrecked. They're not on an island but
on the sea. Safe, though, only--" he paused to listen closely again--"I
can't just make out what he says about his companion."

"Oh! Please, please let me listen!" Gladys Ardmore gripped his arm.

Quickly Curlie snatched the receiver from his head and pressed it down
over her tangled mass of brown hair.

She caught but a few words, then the voice broke suddenly off, but such
words as they were; such words of comfort. The voice of her only
brother had come stealing across the storm to her, assuring her that he
was still alive; that there was still a chance that he might be saved.
She pressed the receivers to her ears in the hopes of hearing more.

In the meantime Curlie was answering the message. In quiet, reassuring
tones he gave their location and told of their purpose in those waters
and ended with the assurance that if it were humanly possible the rescue
should be accomplished.

"And we will save them," he exclaimed. "At least we'll save your
brother."

"You don't think--" Gladys did not finish.

"I hardly know what to think about your brother's chum," Curlie said
thoughtfully. "But this we do know: Your brother is clinging to the
wreckage of a seaplane out there somewhere. And we will save him. See!
the storm is about at an end and morning is near!" He pointed to the
window, where the first faint glow of dawn was showing.

For a moment all were silent. Then suddenly, without warning, there
came a grinding crash that sent a shudder through the _Kittlewake_ from
stem to stern.

"What was that?" exclaimed Joe Marion, springing to his feet from the
floor where he had been thrown.

"We struck something!" Curlie was out upon the deck like a shot.

He all but collided with the skipper, who had deserted his wheel.

"We 'it somethin'," shouted the skipper, "an' she's sinkin' by the
larboard bow. Gotta' git off 'er quick. Boats are gone! Everythin's
gone."

"No," said Curlie calmly, "the raft forward is safely lashed on."

The engineer appeared from below. The engine had already ceased its
throbbing.

"She's fillin' fast," he commented in a slow drawl.

"You two get the raft loose," said Curlie. "I'll get the girl."

Dashing to his stateroom he seized two blankets and a large section of
oiled cloth. With these he dashed to the radio room.

"Got to get out quick!" he exclaimed.

Before she could