.

"I didn't intend to," I answered; "yet that man's cry had so much of the
woman in it that it was instinctive to turn."

"Instinctive or not, here we stay. He is the biggest devil of the lot,"
answered the girl. "There's some horrible game in getting us away. I'm
certain of it, but don't know what it can be. We'll find out when it's
too late."

"We might take them aboard one at a time and bind them," I suggested.
This was greeted with growlings from Chips and Johnson. Even Jenks
declared it would never do, and the other sailors made antagonistic
remarks. There was nothing to do but keep away and let them save
themselves as best they might.

We sailed slowly around the wreck, watching her burn. Hour after hour she
flamed and hissed, the heat being felt at a hundred fathoms distant. And
all the while, the sharp, piping voice of our third mate screamed shrilly
for succor.

After midnight the _Sovereign_ had burned clear to the water line from
aft to amidships. Even her rails along the waist were burning fiercely
with the oil that had been thrown upon them by the explosions of the
heated barrels. And as she burned out her oil, she sank lower and lower
in the water until she gave forth huge clouds of steam and smoke instead
of flaring flames. In the early hours of the morning, we were still
within two hundred fathoms of her; and she showed nothing in the gray
light save the mainmast and the topgallant forecastle. Her canvas had
gone, and the bare black pole of her mast stuck out of the sea, which now
flowed deep around the foot of it. Upon the blackened forecastle head,
five human forms crouched behind the sheltering bulk of the windlass.
They were silent now and motionless. While I looked, one of them
staggered to his feet and stretched out his hands above his head, gazing
at the light in the east. It was Andrews. He raised his clenched fists
and shook them fiercely at us and at the gray sky above. Then over the
calm, silent ocean came the fierce, raving curses of the doomed villain.

A gentle air was stirring the swell in the east, which soon filled our
sail. We kept the boat's head away until she pointed in the direction of
the African cape. And so we sailed away, with the echoes of that
villain's voice ringing in our ears, calling forth fierce curses upon the
God he had denied.

I turned away from the horrible spectacle of that grisly hulk with its
human burden. As I did so, my eyes met those of Miss Sackett. S