ggered to his feet, and steadying himself by
grasping the boat's main-mast, took a long anxious look all round the
horizon. At first he could distinguish nothing save the wildly rushing
foam-capped seas, and the scurrying shreds of cloud which swept rapidly
athwart the black and stormy sky; but after some minutes of painfully
anxious scrutiny he descried, about three miles away to leeward, a tiny
dark object, appearing at intervals against the leaden-grey of the
horizon, which his seaman's eye told him was the pinnace.

_The remainder of the fleet had disappeared_.

It was no more than a realisation of his forebodings; but Captain
Staunton possessed far too feeling a heart not to be powerfully affected
by the loss of the two boats and the thirteen brave fellows who manned
them. He ran over their names mentally, and recalled that no less than
nine of the thirteen had arranged for half their pay to be handed over
to their families at home; and he pictured to himself the bitter grief
and distress there would be in those nine families when it came to be
known that the husband, the father, the bread-winner was gone,
overwhelmed and swallowed up by the remorseless ocean which knows _no_
pity, not even for the wife and the helpless children.

With a powerful effort the captain dismissed these painful reflections
from his mind, and turned his attention to matters nearer home. He had
already searchingly scrutinised the aspect of the weather with most
unsatisfactory results. As far as his experience went there was every
prospect of a continuance--nay more, an increase--of the gale. The sky
to windward looked wilder and more threatening than ever; while that the
sea was still rising was a fact about which there could be no mistake.
He dived into the little cabin or shelter aft, and took a long look at
the aneroid, to find that it still manifested a downward tendency. It
was evidently hopeless to expect a favourable change in the weather for
some hours at least, and to attempt any longer to maintain the boat's
position, in the face of an increasing gale, was to expose her and those
in her to imminent risk of destruction; he therefore decided to watch
his opportunity and seize the first favourable moment for bearing up and
running before it.

Bob and his fellow apprentices, together with Lance and Rex, were soon
summoned, and preparations made for bearing up. It was an anxious
moment, for should the boat be caught broadsid