"What is your boat number?" asks one officer. "This way; that is the
place you are assigned to."

Mr. Elton and his party reached No. 1 without accident, and all but the
boys were safely placed in the boat.

"Come on, boys," said Mr. Elton. "But where is the mother of the
children?" he asked, as he saw the boys were unaccompanied.

"Take the baby," said Alfred, as he passed it to his mother.

Ralph handed the little girl to one of the seamen, and sprang after
Alfred. There was now a dangerous list, and Mrs. Elton noticed it.

"Is there any danger if our boys go below to the stateroom?" she asked
the petty officer, who was holding the rope connected with the tackle of
their boat.

"She'll have to sway over a great deal further to go down," he remarked.

This comforted her for the moment. Passengers were still coming up from
the companionways; some were being dragged along, and others acted like
drunken men and women. It was a terribly trying sight.

An old man shambled forward as he emerged from the cabin door, glanced
along at the filled boats held in the davit, tried to speak, and fell
headlong on the deck. A surgeon near by rushed up, turned him over, felt
of his heart and pulse, shook his head, and drew the body close up to
the side of the cabin wall. Then the officer made a search to ascertain
the name of the man, and extracted papers from his pockets.

Meanwhile, the boys had not returned, and the ship was turning over on
its side more and more.

"Launch the boats!" ordered the captain.

"But our boys! our boys!" shrieked Ralph's mother, but as she arose she
was forcibly restrained. The captain did not hear, and at the command
the boats went down. Even then a half-dozen passengers emerged from the
door too late, and one of them, notwithstanding the warning, was without
a life belt.

The ship's deck was now at an angle of fully thirty degrees,--as steep
as the ordinary roof. Those emerging from the cabin on the port side
could not maintain a footing, but were compelled to slide down to the
side railing. This was the situation when Ralph and Alfred reached the
door which led to the deck from the companionway. They were carrying the
woman whose children they had rescued, as she was in a frenzy, and
struggled with the boys. The moment the inclined deck was reached
Alfred said:

"See that she goes overboard, and I will go down for that little girl,"
and he crawled back into the ship.

Ralph finally