rom the davits, until he momentarily expected to
see the latter torn from their lashings and blown overboard.

The canvas dodgers round the navigating bridge, which they had not had
time to remove, were ripped from their seizings and blown away to
leeward, where in the glare of the lightning they showed for a few
moments like white birds swept away on the wings of the wind. The men
themselves, thus exposed to the full fury of the blast, were obliged to
cling to the bridge rails for their very lives, to avoid being torn from
their hold and whirled overboard; and when the first lull came their
muscles felt as though they had been stretched on the rack, so severe
had been the strain.

Then, as though the wind had taken a breathing space to recover fresh
energy, the hurricane burst upon them again, almost more furiously, if
that were possible, than at first; and Frobisher knew instinctively
that, so far from making headway, the _San-chau_ was being driven back
over the course she had just covered, at a rate of probably five knots
an hour, in spite of the fact that her engines were going full speed
ahead at their utmost capacity. Anxious glances were cast ahead and
astern--ahead to ascertain whether there were any signs of the typhoon
breaking, and astern in momentary dread of sighting the distant loom of
the land toward which, as all knew, they were being slowly but
inexorably driven.

Suddenly the skipper, who had been peering eagerly to windward under the
broad of his hand, turned to Wong-lih and spoke a few rapid sentences in
Chinese, at the same time pointing in the direction towards which he had
been looking. The admiral's eyes followed the outstretched finger, and
Frobisher also glanced in the same direction. The captain had
apparently seen, or believed he had seen, something strange away to the
westward.

A moment later Frobisher knew what it was. Far away, on the edge of the
horizon, appeared a small spark of light which shot rapidly up into the
sky, where it hung for a few seconds and then burst into a
mushroom-shaped cluster of red stars that gradually floated downward
again, fading from view as it did so.

"That," shouted Frobisher excitedly to Wong-lih, "is a rocket, sir.
There's a ship away there which has been less fortunate than ourselves;
she's evidently in distress; and, from her position, I should say that
she has probably been driven on to the Miao-tao rocks."

"Without doubt," returned Wong-l