Part 7 (1/2)

The firemen were called away Even at that awful moment the captain and officers maintained their calmness

Noas the tireater number obeyed the orders they received Buckets were handed up and filled ater to dash over the seat of the fire Blankets were saturated and sent down below

The enehbourhood of the ill-fated shi+p In spite of all the effortsup from below Still, the crew laboured on; hope had not entirely abandoned them, when suddenly a loud roar was heard, the decks were torn up, and hundreds of men in one moment were launched into eternity

Jack, Tom, and Bill had before this made their escape to the upper deck

They had been talking together, wondering as next to happen, when Bill lost all consciousness; but in a few ing to a piece of wreck

He heard voices, but could see no one He called to To that they must be near him, but no answer came

He must have been thrown, he knew, to so wreck, and the wind appeared to be driving hiuns as they beca in the water around him

”And Jack and Toht to himself

”I wish they had been sent here There's rooht have held out till to-ht have seen us and picked us up”

Curiously enough, he did not think h he was thankful to have been saved, he guessed truly that the greater number of his shi+pmates, and the unfortunate prisoners on board, retted Jack and To shi+p cast a bright glare far and wide over the ocean, tinging the foa towards the shi+p He could make out the Frenchman at so across the tossing waters

On the other side he could distinguish another vessel, which was also, he hoped, sending her boats to the relief of the sufferers

The whole shi+p, however, appeared so co out froh every hatchway, that he could not suppose it possible any had escaped

He found it a hardon to the piece of wreck, for the seas were constantly washi+ng over hihted below, so that it remained tolerably steady Had it rolled over and over he must inevitably have lost his hold and been drowned

Though he had had very little of what is called enjoyment in life, and his prospects, as far as he could see, were none of the brightest, he still had no wish to die, and the instinct of self-preservation ht andtowards the shore, had got hold of his raft, which was also driven by the wind in the saradually away fro picked up by one of the boats diht some time before the action, but how far the shi+p had been froht fire he could not tell, and when he turned his eyes to the southward he could see nothing of it

Some hours had passed away, so it seemed to him, when, as he turned his eyes towards the shi+p, the flaher than ever

Her stout hull was adown to the water's edge Then came the end--the aves washed over her, and all was dark

”There goes the old shi+p,” thought Bill ”I wonder how o are now alive Shall I reach the shore to-? I don't see much chance of it, and if I don't, how shall I ever live through another day?”

CHAPTER FIVE

PICKED UP BY A FIshi+NG-VESSEL