you wish me to tear your face with my nails?"

Elsie, who would have soothed her distraught friend with a loving hand,
drew back in real fear that she was confronted by a maniac. The utter
outrageousness of this new infliction brought tears to her eyes. Yet
she choked back her grief for the sake of the others.

"Isobel, darling, please try to control yourself," she pleaded. "Don't
say such cruel things to me. You cannot mean them. I would do
anything to serve you. I am more sorry for you than for myself. I
have little to bind me to this life, whereas you have everything.
Indeed, indeed, I have not been away from you many minutes."

Another heavy sea pitched on board. The _Kansas_ trembled and listed
suddenly. Isobel screamed shrilly, and burst into a storm of dry-eyed
sobs. Her mood changed instantly into one of abject submission. She
sprang towards Elsie with hands outstretched.

"Oh, save me, save me!" she wailed. "God knows I am not fit to die!"

There are some noble natures which find strength in the need to comfort
the weakness of others. Elsie drew the distracted girl close to her,
and placed an arm round her neck.

"It is not for us to say when we shall die," she murmured. "Let us try
to be resigned. We must bear our misfortunes with Christian faith and
hope. Somehow, I feel that I have endured so much to-night that death
looks less terrible now. Perhaps that is because it is so near. To
me, the specter seems to be receding."

"Did the captain tell you we had any chance of escape, senorita?" asked
the Spanish maid.

"What hope did Captain Courtenay hold out?" demanded Mrs. Somerville,
who had listened to Isobel's raving with small comprehension.

Elsie left unuttered the protest on her lips. They all thought she
possessed Courtenay's confidence in the same extraordinary degree.
Well, she would try to impart consolation in that way. It was
ridiculous, but it would serve.

"Of course we are in a desperate situation," she said, "but while the
ship holds together there is always a chance of rescue, and you can see
quite clearly that she is far from breaking up yet."

"Rescue! Did he speak of rescue?" cried Isobel. "That is impossible,
unless we take to the boats. And the cry in the saloon was that two
boats were lost long ago and a third just now. That is why we were
brought on deck. Were they launching a boat?"

"I don't know," said Elsie. "I was here quite alone, except for Jo