wrapped a rug around her, and hurried her on deck.

"What have we hit?" he snapped at the captain.

"Derelict."

"How long d'you give her?"

"Ten minutes at the outside!" flung back the captain, and then into his
megaphone: "Lower away there with No. 4!"

Lifeboat No. 4 was the second boat on the port side--the leeward side.
No. 3 was buried under the tangle of wreckage from the collapse of the
foremast, and therefore useless. The boat was already in the water, with
the mate and four seamen aboard, when Matheson, who had hurried below,
came again on deck with Olaf in his arms. Behind him panted the
stewardess and Olive's maid, terrified and clutching some worthless
finery of hers.

"Women and children to No. 4!" shouted the captain.

"I won't go without you!" cried Olive to her husband, clinging tight to
him.

The captain wasted no precious moments on argument. He thrust the
stewardess and the trembling maid before him, and stout arms bundled
them down to the plunging boat. Then he passed down the little boy.

"Is there room for all of us?" cried Olive.

"No!"

The mate cast off, and lifeboat No. 4 disappeared into the black night.

"Haul on the main and mizzen sheets!" ordered the captain, to bring the
yacht round and get a leeward launch for Nos. 1 and 2.

Presently the two crackling sails gybed over with a thud, and the
"Starlight" lay on the starboard tack, head down and filling rapidly.

"Hurry like hell!" shouted the captain.

Into No. 1, with the boatswain in charge and four seamen, went Olive and
her husband and the cook; and into No. 2 crowded the carpenter, the two
stewards, and the rest of the crew. For the captain was left the frail
dinghy, slung from the stern. True to the tradition of the sea, he had
refused a place in any of the lifeboats.

Lifeboat No. 2 got away first of the two. It was being tossed dizzily
amongst the inky combers twenty yards distant, the men rowing feverishly
to get clear of the yacht before she sank and sucked them under. But
with No. 1 there was some hitch. The boatswain had unshackled the
fall-ropes aft, and the boat slewed off with the jerk of a heavy wave.

"Clear away there forward, blast you!"

Two seamen were tugging at the fall-block. Something had fouled. The
"Starlight" was rearing head stern up; her shattered bows were already
under the waves; her life was now a matter of seconds only.

"Cut the ropes, you blasted idiots!"

Before the two men cou