ails were clewed up and furled. Then a sharp, hissing rain
squall hid her from view in a thick white mist, and, with agony and
despair in his heart, he gave up all hope of life, knowing that the only
other boat was turned bottom up on the main hatch of the barque, and
that the ship was only half-manned by a scratch crew of long-shore
loafers.

But it so happened that when the _Noord Brabant_, close-hauled to clear
Beveridge Reef, was thrown on her beam ends by the violence of the
squall, the whaling schooner _John Bright_ was rolling easily along
before it under shortened canvas, and the cook of the schooner, as he
stood on the foc'scle, smoking his pipe, caught a sight of floating
wreckage right ahead, with the indistinct figure of a man clinging to
it, and bawled out 'Hard a-port!' just in time, or else the schooner
had run right on top of the drifting boat and finished this tale and Tom
Masters as well.

But boats are lowered quickly on an American whale-ship--quicker than
on any other ship afloat--and in less than ten minutes Tom Masters was
picked up and, in face of a blinding rain squall, brought on board the
_John Bright_. Then a long illness--almost death.

Three months afterwards, as the schooner was slowly crawling along over
the North Pacific towards Honolulu, she spoke a timber ship bound to the
Australian colonies from Port Townsend in Puget Sound; and Masters, now
recovering from the terrible shock he had received, went on board and
asked the captain to let him work his passage. But the Yankee skipper of
the lumber ship did not seem to like the idea of having to feed such
a hollow-eyed, gaunt-looking being for another six weeks or so, and
refused his request. And so Masters, in a dulled, apathetic sort of way
went back to the _John Bright_, climbed up her side, and, with despair
in his heart, lay down in his bunk and tried to sleep, never knowing
that, half an hour before, when he was speaking to the captain of the
lumberman, a letter to his wife from Laurance lay in a locker not three
feet away from him, telling her of her husband's death at sea and his
own heartfelt sorrow and sympathy.

And Laurance was honest and genuine in his sympathy. He had had a warm
feeling of friendship for Tom Masters, and his heart was filled with
pity for the poor little wife left alone without a friend in the world.
He had tried to express himself clearly in his letter, but all that
Nellie Masters could understand was th