pieces
of timber.

"If you escape and I get drowned, give my love to poor Susan and the
children. Say that my last thoughts were about them," cried Ben, as he
threw himself after his companions.

Dick and the old seaman alone remained. The mass of wreck was tossed
wildly about for some minutes, being swept by a current parallel to the
shore, until at length, lifted by a sea, it drove on a reef, when the
next sea rolling up, carried its two occupants overboard, together with
several fragments of the bulwarks which it had torn off.

Striking out for his life, Dick succeeded in getting hold of a piece of
timber. As he did so he heard a cry, and glancing in the direction from
whence it came, he dimly saw his late companion through the gloom, lift
up his arms and sink amidst the foaming waters. Dick held fast to the
timber. Although not a bad swimmer, he knew that he should have but
little chance of keeping afloat in that boiling cauldron. The seas
washed him on nearer and nearer the shore, when just as he felt his
strength failing him, he found that the timber had grounded; so letting
it go he scrambled up before the next wave overtook him, and reached the
dry sand, on which he threw himself, well-nigh exhausted by his
exertions. Soon recovering, he looked out, in the hopes that some of
his shipmates might be thrown up on the same beach, but though he for
long watched anxiously, running up and down along the whole circuit of
the bay, he saw no one, and came to the melancholy conclusion that all
on board excepting himself had been lost.

Numerous articles, besides masses of wreck, were, however, cast on
shore, and those which appeared the most valuable he made every exertion
to secure. Among them was a large chest, which he hoped by its weight
to have belonged to the carpenter. Though unable to haul it up beyond
where the water had floated it, having found a rope he made it fast to
the handle, and carried the other end to the trunk of a tree. In vain
he looked out during the time, in the hope of seeing any of his
shipmates coming on shore; he feared all had been drowned or washed
away. At length he made out amid the foam two bodies floating at no
great distance from the shore. They both appeared lashed to pieces of
timber. They might still be alive.

He dashed into the water, just as the sea sent one of the pieces of
wreck close to him, when seizing it he dragged it up, and instantly
casting off the lashin