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aw that I was not wanted there. I went on deck, and found that the sailors from the wreck were stowed away in the dryest places they could find. I invited them all down into the forward cabin, and assigned the mate to the spare berth there. The others must sleep on the floor, for we could do nothing better for them. "Mr. Mate, where is your captain?" I asked. "I don't think he came below, sir. He is feeling very badly about the loss of his vessel," replied the mate. "I will try to find him." He went on deck with me, and we found him coiled away under the topgallant forecastle. I invited him to come into the pilot-house, and he followed me thither. "I am sorry for your misfortune, Captain," I said, when he had seated himself abaft the wheel. "It is a sorry night for me. My vessel is lost, and I have not the least idea how it happened," he replied, very sadly. I did my best to comfort him. I saw that he was quite as much exhausted by his mental sufferings as by his physical exertions. I conducted him to my state-room, and gave him my berth. In a short time he was asleep. CHAPTER XIII. A NIGHT LOST IN THE STORM. At eleven o'clock we changed the course of the Sylvania to south-west half-west, which brought the gale nearly on the beam. The wind was blowing but little, if anything, short of a hurricane. The great billows struck against the side of the vessel and the house on deck with tremendous force. It seemed just as though immense boulders were hurled against the planking that enclosed my state-room, the galley, and the engine-room. The sea swept over the hurricane-deck, and struck heavily upon the planks overhead. Suddenly I heard a noise over my head, as I stood at the wheel, which sounded like the report of a heavy cannon. I thought the sea had broken a hole through. In another instant the steamer was rolling with double the violence of a few minutes before. "What was that noise, Hop?" I asked, when I saw that no water was pouring down upon us. "It was the foresail, sir; it has been blown out of the bolt-ropes," replied Hop, coolly; and he seemed to be incapable of anything like fear. "We have lost the reefed foresail, and that is what makes her roll so much worse than she did five minutes ago." Undoubtedly he was right. The sail had steadied her more than we could have imagined; and now she rolled like a log in a mill-race. The sea struck the side of my state-room as though a ro
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