nk it worth while to call the skipper. It broke on
them with a clap like thunder, but the good _Dolphin_ stood the shock
well, and Dick was congratulating himself when he saw a sea coming
towards them, but sufficiently astern, he thought, to clear them. He
was wrong. It broke aboard, right into the mainsail, cleared the deck,
and hove the smack on her beam-ends.

This effectually aroused the skipper, who made desperate but at first
ineffectual efforts to get out of his berth, for the water, which poured
down the hatchway, washed gear, tackles, turpentine-tins, paint-pots,
and nearly everything moveable from the iron locker on the weather-side
down to leeward, and blocked up the openings. Making another effort he
cleared all this away, and sprang out of the berth, which was half full
of water. Pitchy darkness enshrouded him, for the water had put out the
lights as well as the fire. Just then the vessel righted a little.

"Are you all right on deck?" shouted Jim, as he scrambled up the
hatchway.

"All right, as far as I can see," answered Dick.

"Hold on, I've a bottle o' matches in my bunk," cried the skipper,
returning to the flooded cabin. Fortunately the matches were dry; a
light was struck, and a candle and lamp lighted. The scene revealed was
not re-assuring. The water in the cabin was knee-deep. A flare, made
of a woollen scarf soaked in paraffin, was lighted on deck, and showed
that the mainsail had been split, the boat hopelessly damaged, and part
of the lee bulwarks broken. The mast also was leaning aft, the forestay
having been carried away. A few minutes later Lively Dick went tumbling
down into the cabin all of a heap, to avoid the mast as it went crashing
over the side in such a way as to prevent the use of the pumps, and
carrying the mizzenmast along with it.

"Go to work with buckets, boys, or she'll sink," shouted the skipper,
himself setting the example, for the ballast had shifted and the danger
was great. Meanwhile George King seized an axe and cut away the rigging
that held on to the wrecked masts, and fair-haired Charlie laboured like
a hero to clear the pumps. The rays of the cabin lights did not reach
the deck, so that much of the work had to be done in what may be styled
darkness visible, while the little vessel kicked about like a wild thing
in the raging sea, and the torn canvas flapped with a horrible noise.
Pitiless wind, laden with sleet, howled over them as if thirsting
im