rs must be broken off, being too
long to fit into the watery hollows under her. Having reached the end of
the islet, she paused, and slowly turned.

"Now for it," said Pere Michaux.

It was sunset-time in pleasant parts of the land; here the raw, cold,
yellow light, which had not varied since early morning, giving a
peculiar distinctness to all objects near or far, grew more clear for a
few moments--the effect, perhaps, of the after-glow behind the clouds
which had covered the sky all day unmoved, fitting as closely as the
cover upon a dish. As the steamer started out into the channel, those on
shore could see that the passengers were gathered on the deck as if
prepared for the worst. They were all there, even the children. But now
no one thought any more, only watched; no one spoke, only breathed. The
steamer was full in the gale, and on her side. Yet she kept along,
righting herself a little now and then, and then careening anew. It
seemed as though she would not be able to make headway with her one
wheel, but she did. Then the islanders began to fear that she would be
driven by too far out; but the captain had allowed for that. In a few
seconds more it became evident that she would just brush the end of the
longest pier, with nothing to spare. Then the men on shore ran down, the
wind almost taking them off their feet, with ropes, chains,
grappling-irons, and whatever they could lay their hands on. The
steamer, now unmanageable, was drifting rapidly toward them on her side,
the passengers clinging to her hurricane-deck and to the railings. A
great wave washed over her when not twenty feet from the pier, bearing
off several persons, who struggled in the water a moment, and then
disappeared. Anne covered her eyes with her hands, and prayed that Rast
might not be among these. When she looked again, the boat was fastened
by two, by ten, by twenty, ropes and chains to the end of the pier, bows
on, and pulling at her halters like an unmanageable steed, while women
were throwing their children into the arms of those below, and men were
jumping madly over, at the risk of breaking their ankle-bones. Anything
to be on the blessed shore! In three minutes a hundred persons were on
the pier, and Rast among them. Anne, Dr. Gaston, Pere Michaux, Miss
Lois, and the children all recognized his figure instantly, and the two
old men started down through the storm to meet him, in their excitement
running along like school-boys, hand in