ing surf; to the southward, the whirling
white of waves that are lifting now, topped with phosphorescent foam.

The anchor is let go, but even this does not bring the ship's head to
the wind. Those griping sands hold her keel fast. The force of the
rising gale strikes her full abeam, giving her a great list to shore. It
is in vain the masts are cut away, and the rigging drifts free; the hulk
lifts only to settle anew in the grasping sands. Every old seaman upon
her deck knows that she is a doomed ship.

From time to time, as the crashing spars or the leaden thump upon the
sands have startled those below, Madam Maverick and her maid have made
their appearance, in a wild flutter of anxiety, asking eager questions;
(Reuben alone can understand them or answer them;) but as the
southeaster grows, as it does, into a fury of wind, and the poor hulk
reels vainly, and is overlaid with a torrent of biting salt spray, Madam
Maverick becomes calm. Instinctively, she sees the worst.

"Could I only clasp Adele once more in these arms, I would say,
cheerfully, '_Nunc dimittis_.'"

Reuben regarded her calm faith with a hungry eagerness. Not, indeed,
that calmness was lacking in himself. Great danger, in many instances,
sublimates the faculties of keenly strung minds. But underneath his
calmness there was an unrest, hungering for repose,--the repose of a
fixed belief. If even then the breaking waves had whelmed him in their
mad career, he would have made no wailing outcry, but would have
clutched--how eagerly!--at the merest shred of that faith which, in
other days and times, he had seen illuminate the calm face of the
father. Something to believe,--on which to float upon such a sea!

But the waves and winds make sport of beliefs. Prayers count nothing
against that angry surge. Two boats are already swept from the davits,
and are gone upon the whirling waters. A third, with infinite pains, is
dropped into the yeast. It is hard to tell who gives the orders. But,
once afloat, there is a rush upon it, and away it goes,--overcrowded,
and within eyeshot lifts, turns, and a crowd of swimmers float for a
moment,--one with an oar, another with a thwart that the waves have torn
out,--and in the yeast of waters they vanish.

One boat only remains, and it is launched with more careful handling;
three cling by the wreck; the rest--save only Madam Maverick and
Reuben--are within her, as she tosses still in the lee of the vessel.

"There 's ro