enay's cabin. Joey was glad to be
there, too. He shook himself noisily in his heavy coat.

"You won't mind if I fasten the door on you?" and the captain so far
forgot his anxiety as to smile.

"No, indeed," and she smiled in response.

"Very well. I shall bring Miss Baring in about five minutes. You
won't stir till we come?"

"What? Face that gale without you?" She almost laughed at the idea.
He bolted the door, and he ran into the chart-house to tap the
barometer. It moved appreciably. It was rising! Ah, if only the wind
moderated, he could save the _Kansas_ yet! He glanced at the compass.
Still the same course. Not a fraction of a point gained to the north.
That was bad. The ship was already within the danger zone. Pray
Heaven for a falling wind, or even a change to the southward! Still,
it was in an altogether more cheerful mood that he regained the
promenade deck and made his way towards the saloon.

He was in the very act of entering the doorway when a shudder ran
through the ship, and she lifted slightly. Clinging to a rail, he
waited, rigid as a statue. A second time the great steel hull shook,
but much more violently. Then the _Kansas_ ran her nose into a shoal,
swung round broadside to the sea, lifted again, struck heavily, and
listed to port.

Courtenay was on the starboard side. He heard a yell of dismay from
the men attending to the boats. Screams came from the saloon. The sea
leaped triumphantly over the rails and nearly smothered him with its
dense spray. So this was the end? It had come all too soon. And what
a place for the ship to be cast away! Twenty miles from the nearest
land, in the midst of a sea where no boat could live. God help them
all!

CHAPTER V

THE KANSAS SUSTAINS A CHECK--

Once, in early days, when Courtenay was a middy an a destroyer, his
ship ran ashore on the Manacles. After a bump or two, and a noise like
the snapping of trees during a hurricane, the little vessel broke her
back, and the after part, with the engines, fell away into deep water.
Courtenay happened to be on the bridge; the forward half held intact,
so he and the other survivors clambered ashore at low water.

He waited now for the rending of plates, the tearing asunder of stanch
steel ribs and cross-beams, which should sound the knell of the ship's
last moments. But the _Kansas_ seemed to be in no hurry to fall in
pieces. She strained and groaned, and shook violently when a