way, nerved to desperation by the
divine power of a mother's love; and by some means or other she
contrived to slide back the hatch and step out on to the poop-deck,
where, holding on by the rail, she eagerly looked to the right and left
in quest of Maurice.

Seeing the group on the lee-side gazing steadfastly at the scene in the
water, she staggered towards them, clutching hold of the tarpaulin over
the skylight to steady herself.

"My boy! my boy!" she exclaimed frantically. "Where is he? Oh, he's
lost," she added with a piercing scream,--"fiends, monsters, are you
going to let him drown before your eyes?"--and she made an effort as if
to plunge overboard to where she could see the curly head of her darling
rising just above the waves.

"Hold!" cried Captain Dinks kindly, grasping her arm firmly and drawing
her back. "He's being saved, and we'll have him on board again in a
minute. There, don't you see, some one has plunged in after him and is
just gripping him; we'll have them up together as soon as he has made
fast!"

"Bless him, the brave fellow!" exclaimed the poor lady, whose
peculiarities and bad temper were now forgotten by all in sympathy with
her natural alarm and anxiety, for she spoke in a voice broken with sobs
and tears. "Who is he? I'll fall down on my knees and thank him for
saving my boy!"

"Frank Harness," said the captain; "but I'm sure the gallant fellow will
not want any thanks for doing a brave action! Look alive forward
there!" he called out to the men in the waist, "and ease off those
topgallant braces a bit and let the wreck drift alongside. So--easy
there--belay! Another minute, and we'll have them."

Frank had reached the wreckage while Maurice's mother had been speaking,
and without an instant's delay had looped the end of the signal
halliards round the boy's waist as he held on himself to the end of the
topgallant yard, to which the lee braces were attached. A quick motion
of his arm had then apprised Captain Dinks what to do, and in another
minute or two the wreckage had been floated in under the ship's quarter,
and a dozen hands were helping the brave lad and the boy whom he had
rescued up the side--Maurice, indeed, being hauled up by the bight of
the signal halliards first.

His mother almost went into hysterics when he was restored to her, as if
from the very gates of death; but her joy did not allow her to forget to
thank his rescuer, which she did far more enthusias