an.

"It is death here and death there. I am going to trust to the life
preservers," gasped Ridgeway, as another wave struck. The constant
crackling and crashing told him that the Tempest Queen was being
ground to pieces on the rock and that she had but a few minutes to live.

"Wait, Hugh, we may get off in a boat," cried the other, but he was not
heard. Hugh was in the sea!

Just as Veath began his anguished remonstrance the ship gave a
tremendous lurch, an overpowering wave hurled itself upon the frail
shell and Hugh Ridgeway's frenzied grasp on the rail was broken. When he
saw that he was going, he threw both arms about the girl he had brought
to this awful fate, and, murmuring a prayer, whirled away with the
waters over the battered deck-house and into the black depths.

They shot downward into the sea and then came to the hideous surface,
more dead than alive. His one thought was that nobody in the world would
ever know what had become of Hugh Ridgeway and Grace Vernon.

Chapter XVI

THE NIGHT AND THE MORNING

Gasping for breath, blinded, terrified beyond all imagination, crying to
God from his heart, Hugh gave up all hope. Fathoms of water beneath
them, turbulent and gleeful in the furious dance of destruction;
mountains of water above them, roaring, swishing, growling out the
horrid symphony of death! High on the crest of the wave they soared,
down into the chasm they fell, only to shoot upward again, whirling like
feathers in the air.

Something bumped violently against Ridgeway's side, and, with the
instinct of a drowning man, he grasped for the object as it rushed away.
A huge section of the bowsprit was in his grasp and a cry of hope arose
in his soul. With this respite came the feeling, strong and enduring,
that he was not to die. That ever-existing spirit of confidence, baffled
in one moment, flashes back into the hearts of all men when the faintest
sign of hope appears, even though death has already begun to close his
hand upon them. Nature grasps for the weakest straw and clings to life
with an assurance that is sublime. The hope that comes just before the
end is the strongest hope of all.

"For God's sake, be brave, darling! Cling tight and be careful when you
breathe," he managed to cry in her ear. There was no answer, but he felt
that she had heard.

The night was so black that he could not see the spar to which he clung.
At no time could he see more than the fitful gleam of dark water