rs of peace than signs of any new danger,
they filled her mind with images of the secret recesses over which they
seemed suspended by a thread, and painted them replete with the disgusting
inhabitants of the caverns of the great deep. The intelligent seaman
himself was startled, when he saw, on the surface of the water, the dark
fins of the voracious shark stealing around the wreck, apprised, by his
instinct, that the contents of the devoted vessel were shortly to become
the prey of his tribe. Then came the moon, with its mild and deceptive
light, to throw the delusion of its glow on the varying but ever frightful
scene.

"See," said Wilder, as the luminary lifted its pale and melancholy orb out
of the bed of the ocean; "we shall have light for our hazardous launch!"

"Is it at hand?" demanded Mrs Wyllys, with all the resolution of manner
she could assume in so trying a situation.

"It is--the ship has already brought her scuppers to the water. Sometimes
a vessel will float until saturated with the brine. If ours sink at all,
it will be soon."

"If at all! Is there then hope that she can float?"

"None!" said Wilder, pausing to listen to the hollow and threatening
sounds which issued from the depths of the vessel, as the water broke
through her divisions, in passing from side to side, and which sounded
like the groaning of some heavy monster in the last agony of nature.
"None; she is already losing her level!"

His companions saw the change; but, not for the empire of the world, could
either of them have uttered a syllable. Another low, threatening,
rumbling sound was heard, and then the pent air beneath blew up the
forward part of the deck, with an explosion like that of a gun.

"Now grasp the ropes I have given you!" cried Wilder, breathless with his
eagerness to speak.

His words were smothered by the rushing and gurgling of waters. The vessel
made a plunge like a dying whale; and, raising its stern high into the
air, glided into the depths of the sea, like the leviathan seeking his
secret places. The motionless boat was lifted with the ship, until it
stood in an attitude fearfully approaching to the perpendicular. As the
wreck descended, the bows of the launch met the element, burying
themselves nearly to filling; but, buoyant and light, it rose again, and,
struck powerfully on the stern by the settling mass, the little ark shot
ahead, as though it had been driven by the hand of man. Still, as the
water rus