"'Tis true, however," answered the sailor; "there's nothing in the wake
of the ship; besides, here's the end of the cable."

"What's the matter?" cried Mordaunt, who, coming up out of the hatchway,
rushed to the stern, waving his torch.

"Only that our enemies have escaped; they have cut the cord and gone off
with the boat."

Mordaunt bounded with one step to the cabin and kicked open the door.

"Empty!" he exclaimed; "the infernal demons!"

"We must pursue them," said Groslow, "they can't be gone far, and we
will sink them, passing over them."

"Yes, but the fire," ejaculated Mordaunt; "I have lighted it."

"Ten thousand devils!" cried Groslow, rushing to the hatchway; "perhaps
there is still time to save us."

Mordaunt answered only by a terrible laugh, threw his torch into the
sea and plunged in after it. The instant Groslow put his foot upon the
hatchway steps the ship opened like the crater of a volcano. A burst
of flame rose toward the skies with an explosion like that of a hundred
cannon; the air burned, ignited by flaming embers, then the frightful
lightning disappeared, the brands sank, one after another, into the
abyss, where they were extinguished, and save for a slight vibration
in the air, after a few minutes had elapsed one would have thought that
nothing had happened.

Only--the felucca had disappeared from the surface of the sea and
Groslow and his three sailors were consumed.

The four friends saw all this--not a single detail of this fearful scene
escaped them. At one moment, bathed as they were in a flood of brilliant
light, which illumined the sea for the space of a league, they might
each be seen, each by his own peculiar attitude and manner expressing
the awe which, even in their hearts of bronze, they could not help
experiencing. Soon a torrent of vivid sparks fell around them--then,
at last, the volcano was extinguished--then all was dark and still--the
floating bark and heaving ocean.

They sat silent and dejected.

"By Heaven!" at last said Athos, the first to speak, "by this time, I
think, all must be over."

"Here, my lords! save me! help!" cried a voice, whose mournful accents,
reaching the four friends, seemed to proceed from some phantom of the
ocean.

All looked around; Athos himself stared.

"'Tis he! it is his voice!"

All still remained silent, the eyes of all were turned in the direction
where the vessel had disappeared, endeavoring in vain to penetrate the
dark