Part 40 (1/2)

His oil-skins were glittering with water, and his red face dripping too.

He shook the drops from his brown beard and sat down, with a strange uneasy kind of smile on his face.

”Not much to be done, is there, Morgan?”

”Nothing,” replied the mate. ”Seems to me we've just got to sit here and wait for death.”

”Is that the view you take?”

A terrible wave at that moment dashed over the vessel, shaking her from stern to stem.

”Hark, sir! Isn't that the view you take?”

”While there is life there is hope, my friend.”

The mate laughed half scornfully.

”There won't be much of either half an hour after this,” he said solemnly.

The captain now essayed to go on deck. He ventured forward only a step or two. To have come farther would have been sheer madness.

Morgan was right. They had only to wait for death.

Wait and pray, however.

Ah, yes! for G.o.d the Lord is everywhere, on sea as well as on the dry land, and prayer is never denied us.

Morgan's half-hour was past, and another to that; still the st.u.r.dy s.h.i.+p gave no signs of breaking up.

On the contrary, the wind had gone down considerably, and the seas as well.

”Mate,” said Talbot.

”Yes, sir.”

”Are the men below?”

”Three, I think, were washed away; the rest are all in the galley or half-deck.”

”It is very dreadful. But we have hope now. An hour ago I should not have ventured to serve out grog, lest in despair some might have broken into the spirit-hold. Come with me now, mate, and we will splice the main-brace. Come, steward, you know what is wanted.”

It was very difficult even yet to get forward, so covered was the deck with wreckage. But they succeeded at last.

Sad, indeed, was the sight that dawn revealed.

The mizzen-mast alone was left standing, the fore and main having gone by the board.

The s.h.i.+p herself had been carried by a huge tidal wave, right in between two high volcanic-looking rocks, and there so jammed that at low tide it was perfectly possible to walk under keel.

Jibboom and bowsprit were also smashed, and a single glance at the s.h.i.+p would have told even a landsman that she was doomed.