was marshalling his
forces and about to make his swoop. What was to be done? There were
only two oars on board the raft--the steering-oars--and they were so
firmly secured that it would be next to impossible to cast them adrift
and use them as means of propulsion, even if one man's strength were
sufficient to handle them both simultaneously. Moreover, if a little
puff of wind should come, as is sometimes the case, before the great
burst of the hurricane, they would, one or both, be wanted where they
were. Perhaps hailing might be of use. At all events, he would try.
And, placing his hollowed hands on each side of his mouth to form a
speaking trumpet the skipper drew a deep inspiration or two, hailed with
the utmost strength of his lungs; "Ship ahoy-oy!"

And then listened.

No response. Nothing save the faint murmurings and railings of the
gathering gale.

"_Ship ahoy-oy_!"

Hark! what was that? Did he, indeed, hear a faint answering halloo from
away yonder in the direction of those weird lights, or was it merely
that the wish was father to the thought?

"Sh-i-ip A--hoy-oy-oy!"

"_Halloo_!"

Quite unmistakable this time; and the skipper, in a perfect frenzy of
excitement, repeats his hail time after time, waiting only long enough
to receive the answer before hailing again. Presently a bright star
suddenly appears under the faintly gleaming corposants. It is a ship's
lantern held up over the rail. A minute later a tiny spark appears
close to the lantern, immediately bursting into a keen bluish glare from
which a cloud of white smoke arises and flakes of blue-white flame drop
now and then as a port-fire is burnt. By its brilliant though ghostly
radiance the skipper can see, less than half a mile distant, a brig
under nothing but close-reefed main-topsail and fore-topmast staysail--
evidently fully prepared for the worst that can come to her in the shape
of weather--with a little group of figures gathered about the port-fire,
and a smaller group, consisting of two men only, abaft the main-rigging,
all peering eagerly in his direction.

He sees one of the figures raise his arms; and presently there comes
floating across the inky water:

"Halloo, there! Who hails?"

The skipper again raises his hands to his mouth, draws a mighty
inspiration, and replies, as the readiest means of bringing succour to
him:

"Shipwrecked m-a-an. Broad--on--your--port--b-ea-eam!"

The figure who had hailed waves his