and steel as the great vessel struck the reef, shook herself free, and
struck again, her stern grinding deep into the rock. In that moment
every soul on board looked death in the face, and it seemed, indeed, as
though death were inevitable. The heroic efforts of the crew succeeded
in launching the boats, but several of the number were swamped before
the eyes of the beholders, and for the rest the chance of survival on
such a sea seemed small indeed. Even so, there was a fight for a place,
for to remain on the ship meant a certainty of death, and the wildest
chance is precious in such a plight, but among the men and women who
fought and struggled was no member of Geoffrey Sterne's party.

Flora's panic of terror had been so violent that it had been necessary
to drug her with a strong sleeping draught, and the faithful maid
refused to leave her side. Sterne had, indeed, made an attempt to
persuade Meriel to try for a place, but she had flamed into bitter
anger, and he had not persisted. He saw her seated with the other
waiting ones in the stern of the vessel, already tilted high above the
bow, and turned in silence to make his way to his wife.

That moment for Meriel was the bitterest of all. The act of death
itself had for her no terror; it was the parting from Geoffrey Sterne
which wrung her heart. So inextricably had her life become woven with
his that she had no wish to live in a world from which he was absent,
and if she lived on, separation was bound to come. Only one unutterable
regret filled her soul--she was going out into eternity a maimed,
stunted thing, from whom had been withheld the meaning of life, the
deepest part of whose nature had been persistently starved.

"If for even one minute I could have said, `_I am happy_!' I could have
died content. But I have never known happiness, and now death is
coming, and I am waiting for it alone."

In that last word lay the sting. She was alone; the solitary unit among
the crowd who had no one to comfort her, and to comfort in return; to
whose hand no one clung as to the one sure support. She was alone!

At that moment she saw him coming, edging his way along the sloping
deck, with the sure foot, the calm, deliberate movements, which were so
emblematic of his strength. Cautiously, slowly, as he came, there was
never a moment of wavering in his course. His mind had registered her
position among the crowd of waiting figures; quietly, steadily, he was