when he looked, and saw that his first was a hundred feet this
side of the struggling men.

He turned to glance forward. Men were running about frantically, and
shouting, but nothing was done, and the boat still held at a matter of
forty knots an hour. Riley grinned from the hatch; and, forward on the
bridge, Forsythe turned his now sober face away, to look at the
compass, and at the steamer fast disappearing in the haze that followed
her.

Then, more as an outlet for his anger and disgust than in the hope of
saving life, Denman threw the second life-buoy high in air over the
stern, and led the shocked and hysterical Florrie down the stairs.

"Rest here a while," he said, gently, "and try to forget it. I don't
know what they'll do now, but--keep your pistol with you at all times."

He went up with a grave face and many heartfelt misgivings; for, with
Forsythe and Riley now the master spirits, things might not go well with
them.

CHAPTER XXIV

In about ten minutes Forsythe ground the wheel over and headed back;
but, though Denman kept a sharp lookout, he saw nothing of the two men
or the life-buoys. He could feel no hope for Sampson, who was unable to
swim. As for Jenkins, possibly a swimmer, even should he reach a
life-buoy, his plight would only be prolonged to a lingering death by
hunger and thirst; for there was but one chance in a million that he
would be seen and picked up.

After ten minutes on the back track, the boat was logically in about the
same position as when she had fled from the steamer; but Forsythe kept
on for another ten minutes, when, the haze having enveloped the whole
horizon, he stopped the engines, and the boat lost way, rolling
sluggishly in the trough.

There was no wind, and nothing but the long ground swell and the haze to
inconvenience them; the first in making it difficult to sight a
telescope, the second in hiding everything on the horizon, though hiding
the boat herself.

But at last Forsythe fixed something in the glass, gazing long and
intently at a faint spot appearing to the northwest; and Denman,
following suit with the binoculars, saw what he was looking at--a huge
bulk coming out of the haze carrying one short mast and five funnels.
Then he remembered the descriptions he had read of the mighty
_Gigantia_--the only ship afloat with five funnels since the _Great
Eastern_.

Forsythe called, and all hands flocked to the bridge, where they
discussed the situation; and, a