oss-trees beside the
missionary, and assisted him to shelter his daughter from the storm,
shouted in her ear to keep her mind easy, "for the people on shore would
be sure to send off the lifeboat, and there would be no danger if the
mast held on!"

"If the mast held on!" Ha! little did Lucy know how much anxiety filled
the heart of Bax in regard to the mast holding on! With much difficulty
he had persuaded Denham, Crumps, and Company, about a year before the
events we are now relating, that the mainmast of the "Nancy" was utterly
useless, and obtained their unwilling consent to have it renewed. But
for this it would have shared the fate of the foremast, and those who
now clung to it would have been in eternity. But although the mast was
strong, its step and holdfasts, Bax knew, were the reverse of sound; and
while he stood there cheering his companions with hopeful remarks, he
alone knew how frail was the foundation on which his hopes were founded.

Fortunately for Lucy and her father, they looked to a higher source of
comfort than the young skipper of the "Nancy." They knew that it was no
uncommon thing for men, women, and children to be saved, on the coasts
of Britain, "_as if_ by miracle," and they felt themselves to be in the
hands of Him "whom the winds and the sea obey."

Guy held on to the weather-shrouds close to Bax. Speaking so as not to
be heard by the others, he said:

"Is there much chance of a boat putting off to us?"

"Not much," replied Bax. "A lugger could scarcely live in such a sea.
Certainly it could not come near us in this shoal water. I doubt even
if the lifeboat could come here."

For two hours after this they remained silently in their exposed
position, their limbs stiffening with cold, drenched continually with
spray, and occasionally overwhelmed by the crest of a monstrous wave.
Sometimes a rocket from the lightship shot athwart the dark sky, and at
all times her lights gleamed like faint stars far away to windward.
When the sea broke around them in whiter sheets than usual, they could
see the head of the broken foremast drawn against it like a black line
to leeward. Everything else above and below, was thick darkness.

One of the seamen, who had been for some time in bad health, was the
first to give way. Without uttering a word he loosened his hold of the
shrouds and fell backwards. Guy saw him falling, and, making a
desperate grasp at him, caught him by the breast of his s