e a great roll
towards them, Morris seized the oars and rowed like a madman.

"Help me!" he gasped; "the current is against us." And, sitting opposite
to him, she placed her hands upon his hands, pressing forward as he
pulled. Her slight strength made a difference, and the boat forged
ahead--thirty, forty, seventy yards--till they reached a rock to which,
exhausted, he grappled with a hook, bidding her hold on to the floating
seaweed. Thus they rested for thirty seconds, perhaps, when she spoke
for the first time:

"Look!" she said.

As she spoke the steamer slid and lifted off the reef. For a few moments
she wallowed; then suddenly her stern settled, her prow rose slowly in
the air till it stood up straight, fifty or sixty feet of it. Then, with
a majestic, but hideous rush, down went the Trondhjem and vanished for
ever.

All round about her the sea boiled and foamed, while in the great
hollow which she made on the face of the waters black lumps of wreckage
appeared and disappeared.

"Tight! hold tight!" he cried, "or she will suck us after her."

Suck she did, till the water poured over the gunwale. Then, the worst
passed, and the boat rose again. The foam bubbles burst or floated away
in little snowy heaps; the sea resumed its level, and, save for the
floating debris, became as it had been for thousands of years before the
lost Trondhjem rushed downward to its depths.

Now, for the first time, knowing the immediate peril past, Morris looked
at the face of his companion. It was a fine face, and beautiful in its
way. Dark eyes, very large and perfect, whereof the pupils seemed to
expand and contract in answer to every impulse of the thoughts within.
Above the eyes long curving lashes and delicately pencilled, arched
eyebrows, and above them again a forehead low and broad. The chin
rounded; the lips full, rich, and sensitive; the complexion of a clear
and beautiful pallor; the ears tiny; the hands delicate; the figure
slim, of medium height, and alive with grace; the general effect most
uncommon, and, without being lovely, breathing a curious power and
personality.

Such was the woman whom he had saved from death.

"Oh, how splendid!" she said in her deep voice, and clasping her hands.
"What a death! For ship or man, what a death! And after it the great
calm sea, taking and ready to take for ever."

"Thank Heaven that it did not take you," answered Morris wrathfully.

"Why?" she answered.

"Because you a