reach us. Suddenly the men rushed to the boats and cast them loose.
Fighting with the dash of madmen, they crowded the launch, they swarmed
the jolly-boat and the life-boat. Even the engineer's son felt the
touch of contagion, and joined the _melee_. We watched their insane
efforts as boat after boat put away and was swamped, leaving the
devilish men to drown as the worthier fellows had drowned before them;
and amongst the last to die was "Dick the Ranter," who went down with
blasphemies gurgling upon his lips. When six o'clock came, Black and
Karl and myself were alone upon the great ship; and in the stillness
which followed there came another weird and wild and soul-stirring
shriek--the cry of the dumb engineer, who found speech in the great
catastrophe. Then Black pulled me by the arm and said--

"Boy, they've left nothing but the dinghy. The old ship's done; and
it's time you left her."

"And you?" I asked.

He looked at me and at Karl. He had meant to die with the ship, I knew;
but the old magnetism of my presence held him again in that hour. He
followed me slowly, as one in a dream, to the davits aft, and freed the
last of the boats, overlooked by the hands in their frenzy and their
panic. Then he went to his cabin, and to the rooms below; and I helped
him to put a couple of kegs of water in the frail craft, with some
biscuit, which we lashed, and a case of wine which he insisted on.

The preparation cost us half-an-hour of time, and when all was ready,
the captain went to the engine-room and brought Karl to the top of the
ladder; but there the German stayed, nor did threats or entreaties move
him.

"He'll die with the ship," said Black, "and I don't know that he isn't
wise;" but he held out his hand to the genius of his crime, and after a
great grip the two men parted.

For ourselves, we stepped on the frailest craft with which men ever
faced the Atlantic, and at that moment the first of the ironclads fired
another shell at the nameless ship. It was a crashing shot, but it had
come too late to serve justice, or to wreck the ship of mystery; for
Karl had let the hydrogen into the cylinders unchecked, and with a
mighty rush of flame, and a terrific explosion, the craft of gold gave
her "Vale!" And in a cascade of fire, lighting the sea for many miles,
and making as day the newly-fallen night, the golden citadel hissed
over the water for one moment, then plunged headlong, and was no more.

A fierce fire it w