y sees us in the morning, if we
don't get rolled onto the coast in the breakers and--" He did not
finish.

"It seems that a lot of things can happen at sea," she suggested.

"That fact has been proved to me in the past few weeks."

"You mean in the past few hours, don't you?"

"Miss Marston, what has happened on that schooner is a part of the
business, and a sailor must take it as it comes along. I wish nothing
worse had happened to me than what's happening now."

She made no reply.

"But no matter about it," he said, curtly.

The two men, kneeling amidships, clutching a thwart and bailing with
their free hands, toiled away; even Bradish had wakened to the fact that
he was working for his own salvation.

In the obscurity the waves which rose ahead seemed like mountains topped
with snow. Hollows and hills of water swept past on their right and
left. But the crests of the waves were not breaking, and this fact meant
respite from immediate danger.

"I'm sorry it was all left to you to do," ventured the girl, breaking
a long silence. "I thought Ralph had more man in him," she added,
bitterly. "I feel that he ought to apologize to you for--for several
things."

He, on his part, did not reply to that. He was afraid that she intended
to draw him into argument or explanation. Just what he would be able to
say to her on that topic was not clear to him.

"It seems as if years had gone by instead of hours. It seems as if I
had lived half a life since I left home. It seems as if I had changed
my nature and had grown up to see things in a different light. It is all
very strange to me."

He did not know whether she were talking to herself or to him. He did
not offer comment.

There was a long period of silence. The sound of rushing waters filled,
that silence and made their conversation audible only to themselves when
they talked.

"I don't understand how you happened to be on that schooner--as--as you
were," she said, hesitating.

"I didn't rig myself out this way to play any practical jokes, Miss
Marston," he returned, bitterly.

"I would like to know how it all happened--your side of it."

"I have talked too much already."

There was no more conversation for a long time. He wondered how she had
mustered courage to talk at all. They were in a predicament to try the
courage of even a seasoned seaman. In the night, tossed by that wild
sea, drifting they knew not where, she had apparently disregarded
danger. H