their hands to the closing of the hatch and the
folding leaves of the door.

Captain Mayo, his clutch still on a knob, found himself pulled under
water without understanding at first just what had happened. He let go
his grip and came up to the surface, spouting. He heard the girl shriek
in extremity of terror, so near him that her breath swept his face. He
put out his arm and caught her while he was floundering for a footing.
When he found something on which to stand and had steadied himself, he
could not comprehend just what had happened; the floor he was standing
on had queer irregularities.

"We've gone over!" squalled Mr. Speed in the black darkness. "We've gone
clear over. We're upside down. We're standing on the ceiling!"

Then Mayo trod about a bit and convinced himself that the irregularities
under his feet were the beams and carlines.

The _Polly_ had been tripped in good earnest! Mr. Speed was right--she
was squarely upside down!

Even in that moment of stress Mayo could figure out how it had happened.
The spitter must have ripped all her rotten canvas off her spars as she
rolled and there had been no brace to hold her on her beam-ends when she
went over.

Captain Candage was spouting, splashing near at hand, and was bellowing
his fears. Then he began to call for his daughter in piteous fashion.

"Are you drownded, Polly darling?" he shouted.

"I have her safe, sir," Mayo assured him in husky tones, trying to clear
the water from his throat. "Stand on a beam. You can get half of your
body above water."

"It's all off with us," gasped the master. "We're spoke for."

Such utter and impenetrable blackness Mayo had never experienced before.
Their voices boomed dully, as if they were in a huge hogshead which had
been headed over.

'"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep,'"
quavered the cook. "If anybody knows a better prayer I wish he'd say
it."

"Plumb over--upside down! Worse off than flies in a puddle of Porty Reek
molasses," mourned Mr. Speed.

The master joined the mate in lamentation. "I have brought my baby to
this! I have brought my Polly here! God forgive me. Can't you speak to
me, Polly?"

Mayo found the girl very quiet in the hook of his arm, and he put his
free hand against her cheek. She did not move under his touch.

"She has fainted, sir."

"No, she's dead! She's dead!" Candage began to weep and started to
splash his way across the cabin, directed by Mayo's