en. For a few breathless seconds the chair and its occupant were lost
to view; then, as the ship surmounted the wave, the chair again
appeared; _but it was empty_; its late occupant had vanished! There was
a cry of dismay as this became manifest, and with one consent everybody
craned over the rail and peered down into the leaping water, in the hope
of discovering the missing man, while a few of the smarter hands on the
forecastle sprang for rope's-ends, which they quickly coiled and stood
by to heave to him, should he reappear. But he never did; and after
watching for a full two minutes he was given up, and the chair was again
hauled aboard the barque. A further delay now took place, no one
seeming to have the courage to undertake the short but terrible passage;
at length, however, a man stepped forward and placed himself in the
chair, and the journey began. Half the passage was accomplished ere he
was overtaken, when, like the rest of us, he was submerged for a few
awful seconds; and when next we saw him he was just in the very act of
falling from the chair, having apparently been dragged out of it by the
fierce, sweeping rush of the sea. Shouts of horror at this fresh
disaster, and of encouragement to the man, at once arose, in the midst
of which I seized the end of a good long coil of line which a man was
holding ready to throw, and, quickly tying a bowline therein, threw the
bight over my shoulder, poised myself for a dive, waiting, with one foot
on the topgallant rail, to see just exactly what was happening, before
taking the leap. The unfortunate man sank, upon striking the water; but
presently the man beside me sang out "There he is!" pointing at the same
time down at the water about thirty feet from our bows; and, peering
down, I at length caught sight, indistinctly, of what looked like a
human form, twisting and writhing a few feet below the surface. I
instantly dived, and the next moment found myself within arm's reach of
the man, whom I seized by the hair and dragged to the surface, when all
that I had to do was to fling my arms about his body, and hold on like
grim death, Murgatroyd and his people at once undertaking the rather
delicate task of getting us both safely inboard. This was soon
accomplished; but meanwhile the bosun's chair hung stationary midway
between the two vessels, our people seeming doubtful of the utility of
proceeding further.

But there was no time to lose if the remaining French