talk about, 'twas as close a shave with us, sir, as ever
happened at sea."

Grace moaned, opened her eyes and then shut them again, and moved her
hand that I should take it. The companion cover lay a little way open,
but though tons of water might be flying over the bow for aught I knew,
not a drop glittered in the hatch. I could now, however, very clearly
hear the roaring _hum_ of the gale, and catch the note of boiling
waters; but these sounds were not so distracting but that Caudel and I
clearly heard each other's voice.

"Is the yacht tight, do you think, Caudel?" cried I.

"I hope she is, sir."

"Hope! My God, but you must _know_, Caudel."

"Well, sir, she's adraining a little water into her--I'm bound to say
it--but nothen that the pump won't keep under; and I believe that most
of it finds its way into the well from up above."

I stared at him with a passion of anxiety and dismay, but his cheery
blue eyes steadfastly returned my gaze as though he would make me know
that he spoke the truth--that matters were not worse than he
represented them.

"Has the pump been worked?" I inquired.

He lifted his hand as I asked the question, and I heard the beat of the
pump throbbing through the dull roar of the wind as though a man had
seized the brake of it in response to my inquiry.

"This is a frightful situation to be in," said I, with a glance at
Grace, who lay motionless, with her eyes shut, rendered almost
insensible by the giddy and violent motion of the hull.

"It'll all come right, sir," he exclaimed; "daybreak 'll be here
soon--" he looked up at the clock, "then we shall be able to see what
to do."

"But what is to be done?"

"Plenty, sir. Tarn to first of all and secure the remains of the mast.
There's height enough left. We must secure him, I says, then wait for
this here breeze to blow himself out, and then make sail and get away
home as fast as ever we can."

"But is the vessel, wrecked aloft as she is, going to outlive such
weather as this?" I cried, talking in a half-dazed way out of the sort
of swooning feeling which came and went in my head like a pulse with
the wild, sky-high flights and the headlong falls of the little vessel.

"I hope she will, I'm sure, sir. She was built for the seas of the
Dogger, and ought to be able to stand the likes of this."

"Does much water come aboard?"

"Now and agin there's a splash, but she's doing werry well, sir. Ye
see we ain't a canoe, nor a wh