much confidence in her as ever. The carpenter and
his assistants set to work without delay, and, wonderful to relate,
undertook to have all damages repaired by the following day. A doctor
was also sent for to attend to poor Dick Stokes, who had remained
senseless since he was taken below. After some treatment, however, he
recovered sufficiently to speak and to give an account of what he
recollected from the moment he saw the stranger gliding stem on towards
the _Stella's_ beam.

"She seemed to be coming just as it were out of a fog, like a big ice
mountain, and I thought it was all over with us," he said. "I'd just
time to put the helm down, hoping to scrape clear of her, when I heard a
crash and saw her bowsprit come sweeping along over our deck, tearing
away the luff of the mainsail and knocking the port quarter-boat to
pieces. I thought I saw some one hanging on to her bobstay, and the
next moment that or something else struck me on the head and shoulders,
and I thought I was going overboard. It seemed as if I heard a cry, but
whether it was my own shout or some one else's is more than I can tell.
You see, sir, it was so dark I could not make out anything more, so
whether it was really a man I caught sight of or not I cannot tell. To
my mind, where the schooner was struck, she bounded off from the ship,
or we should have been sent to the bottom. That she was a sailing ship
and not a steamer I am pretty certain, for I had time to see her canvas
rising up above us."

Dick's statement, as far as the appearance of the ship was concerned,
was corroborated by the rest of the crew, but so dark was it that only
two had actually seen her before she was again clear of the schooner and
running past astern. Dick's statement slightly raised the hopes of
Adair and his friends, that Lord Saint Maur might have escaped, but why,
if he had got safely on board the ship, she did not heave to to allow
the yacht to speak with her was surprising. The only supposition was
that she was a foreigner, and that he could not make himself understood,
or that the officer of the watch, supposing that the schooner had sunk,
was afraid to heave to lest he might be made answerable for the
catastrophe.

Such utter disregard for human life had before been exhibited on more
than one occasion, and this might be another instance. However,
conjectures were useless. If Saint Maur had been saved they would hear
of him again. He would either ge