the chief mate, who held a
coil of small thin line in his hand.

"Here you are, Mr Conyers," he exclaimed, as I joined him. "This coil
is the main signal halliards, which I have unrove for the purpose--they
are better than new, for they have been stretched and have had the kinks
taken out of them. And if they are not enough, here are the fore
halliards, all ready for bending on at a second's notice. I shall pay
out for you, so you may depend upon having the line properly tended.
Now, how will you have the end? will you have it round your waist,
or--?"

"No," said I. "Give it me as a standing bowline, which I can pass over
my shoulder and under my arm. So; that will do. Is the hawser fitted,
and all ready for paying out?"

"Yes," answered the mate, "everything is quite ready. I've left about
five fathoms of bare end for bending on; and I think you can't do much
better than take a turn with it round the mizenmast, under the
spider-band."

"That is exactly what I thought of doing," said I. "In fact it is about
the only suitable place."

I stood talking with Murgatroyd until we were once more almost within
hail of the barque, when, with the bowline at the end of the line over
my left shoulder and under my right arm, I laid out to the
flying-jib-boom-end, upon which I took my stand, steadying myself by
grasping the royal stay in my left hand. The motion away out there, at
the far extremity of that long spar, was tremendous; so much so, indeed,
that seasoned as I was to the wild and erratic movements of a ship in
heavy weather, the sinkings and soarings and flourishings of that
boom-end, as the vessel plunged and staggered down toward the wreck,
made me feel distinctly giddy. The wait was not a very long one,
however, and in less than five minutes I found myself abreast the
barque's starboard quarter, and within a hundred feet of it. I was now
as close to the wreck as Captain Dacre dared put me; so, as the ship met
a heavy sea and flung me high aloft above the white water that seethed
and swirled about the stern of the sinking craft, I let go my hold upon
the stay and, poising myself for an instant upon the up-hove extremity
of the boom, raised my hands above my head as I bent my body toward the
water, and took off for a deep dive, my conviction being that I should
do far better by swimming under water than on the surface. As I rushed
downward I heard Dacre shout: "There he goes! God be with him!" and
the