shot, with a quick jar and creaking of trusses,
parrals, and block sheaves, before the canvas again collapsed to the
masts with a rustling sound that to our overstrained senses seemed
preternaturally loud.

"It is coming now; look there, over the starboard quarter!" shouted
Gurney, pointing; and, putting his hands to his mouth, he yelled to
those in the approaching boat: "Pull, men; pull for your lives, or
you'll miss us yet!"

I looked in the direction indicated, and, sure enough, it was as Gurney
had said. The sky in that quarter was black as night, and beneath it
was the long line of white foam that marked the progress of the
approaching squall. It was racing down upon us with incredible speed,
and, near as the boat was, it was evident that the squall must strike us
before she could get alongside. And, once in the grip of that raving
fury of wind, no earthly power could save those unfortunates, who were
now fighting like maniacs to reach the ark of safety that floated so
near--yet not near enough! Something must be done, some risk must be
taken to help them. That we should, without effort of any sort, suffer
ourselves to be cruelly snatched away far beyond the reach of those
desperately struggling men, leaving them to miserably perish, was
unthinkable!

"Back the fore topsail!" I yelled, springing down the poop ladder to
the main deck and feverishly casting off the fore braces; "it is the
only thing that we can do; we may lose our topmasts, but we must risk
that. With our fore topsail aback we may perhaps be able to edge down
upon and pick them up, otherwise we shall never set eyes upon them
again."

Working like demons, each of us seeming to be possessed, for the moment,
of the strength of a dozen men, we got the head yards braced round and
the braces made fast before the squall reached us; and then I sprang aft
to the wheel, while Gurney and Saunders, snatching up as many loose
coils of rope as they could grasp, stood by to drop them into the boat.
As I reached the wheel and wrenched it hard a-starboard, the squall,
with an indescribable fury of sound, struck us--fortunately well over
the starboard quarter. With a report like a cannon-shot and a creaking
and groaning of overstrained spars and timbers the _Mercury_ buried her
bows in the boiling sea and gathered way, paying off square before the
wind as she did so. I let her go well off, until the longboat was broad
on our starboard bow; then, putting