Bill had struck
the chain-span of the weather-quarter davits, breaking it as if it had
been packthread. Mr Collinson, the second lieutenant, who had charge
of the deck, pointed it out to the captain.

"The poor fellow must have been killed, whoever he was."

"Who is it?" asked the captain.

"Sunshine Bill!" cried out a voice.

"Bill Sunnyside, sir," said another.

"Alas!" thought the captain, "the poor lad I promised his widowed mother
I would look after. Does any one see him?" asked the captain.

"Yes, sir; there he is! There he is!" answered several voices.

Bill was seen floating on the top of a foaming sea. The life-buoy was
let go, its bright light bursting forth, and burning a welcome beacon,
it might be, to poor Bill. He was known to be a good swimmer. No boy
was equal to him on board. The ship was flying away, however, at a
rapid rate from him. Many declared that they saw him swimming, and that
therefore he could not have been killed, as had been supposed. Captain
Trevelyan gazed for an instant at the spot where Bill had been seen. He
was no longer, however, visible. It was a moment to him of intense
anxiety. To lower a boat in that foaming sea would in all probability
cause the loss of many more, and yet could he desert the poor lad?

Suddenly, with startling energy, he shouted out, "Wear ship! Up with
the helm! Square away the after-yards!"

The ship went on plunging into the heavy seas as she made a wide
circuit, the yards being again braced up on the other tack.

CHAPTER SIX.

The _Lilly_, brought to the wind, once more stood back along the course
on which she had just before been sailing. She was then hove to. By
the captain's calculations, she had reached the locality where Bill had
fallen overboard. All hands were on deck and every eye strained,
endeavouring to pierce the thick gathering gloom in the direction where
it was supposed he might still be.

Friendly voices shouted out,--"Bill Sunnyside! Sunshine Bill! Answer,
lad! Answer!" Still no reply came.

"I knew it would be so," muttered old Grim. "The lad was always
boasting of being in such good luck, or something of that sort. And now
this is what his good luck has come to. Well, well, his fate has been
that of many, so there's nothing strange in it."

With this philosophical remark old Grim walked forward; but still,
somehow or other, his heart felt sorry at losing the poor lad, and he
went and peered down