y; a whole Niagara of water poured down
through the opening upon my devoted head, and as I clung to the handrail
with the grip of a drowning man the schooner struck a third time, with
such terrific violence that I fully expected the hull to go to pieces
about my ears. But no, the stanchly built little hooker still held
together, although I knew that her bottom must be stove in like a
cracked egg-shell; and presently, when I felt that I could not hold my
breath for another second, I found my head once more above water, and
saw dimly, close above me, the hole in the deck where the companion
cover had once been. Another moment and I had again found footing on
the ladder, and, bruised all over and aching in every joint of my body,
I crawled out on deck.

Whether it was that my eyes had at last adjusted themselves to the
darkness, or that the darkness was less profound than it had been, I
know not, but as I emerged from the companion way and secured a footing
on deck I became aware that I could dimly perceive my immediate
surroundings. The first object to catch my eye was the stump of the
mainmast within a few feet of the spot where I was standing, and the
instinct of self-preservation at once prompted me to make a dash at it
and fling my arms round it, in order that I might not be swept away by
the next sea which should break aboard. And as I stood there gasping
for breath and staring about me I discovered that I could not only dimly
perceive my immediate surroundings, but that the entire hull of the
schooner was visible as an all but shapeless black patch in the midst of
a madly leaping chaos of swirling foam, which gleamed ghostly white in
the light of its own phosphorescence. It was still blowing as furiously
as ever, and the air was thick with spindrift and scudwater, which
blotted out everything outside the radius of some thirty fathoms on
every side; but the schooner now seemed to be in comparatively smooth
water, and I was not long in guessing at the reason, for, glancing to
windward, I could dimly see, a few fathoms away, a great wall of
spouting, leaping white breakers, evidently marking the position of the
reef upon which we had struck so violently, and over which we now seemed
to have beaten, for there were no further shocks. But imperfectly as I
could distinguish objects in the darkness, I could still see enough to
convince me that the schooner was a complete wreck and full of water,
for both masts were ov