Christ? I'm not much in that line myself, but don't you
think maybe an odd word wouldn't be some help like in this frap? I'm
passin' away, and I don't want to leave anything out."

Lewis slipped up on deck and signed for Larmor.

"Our man wants to pray. Don't you think we may all meet? You can do
nothing more than let the vessel drift. Leave one hand here ready to
show a flare, and come down." "I don't much understand it, sir; but Bob
and me will come."

Then, knee deep in water, the forlorn little company prayed together. I
do not care to report such things--it verges on vulgarism; but I will
tell you a word or two that came from the maimed man. "O Lord, give me a
chance if you see fit; but let me go if any one is to go, and save my
commerades. I've been a bad 'un, and I haven't no right to ask nothing.
Save the others, and, if I have no chance in this world of a better
life, give me a look in before you take me."

Who could smile at the gruff, innocent familiarity? A very great poet
has said, "Consort much with powerful uneducated persons." Fellows like
Withers make one believe this.

The prayer was not, perhaps, intelligent; but He who searches the hearts
would rightly appraise those words, "I've been a bad 'un." Ferrier felt
lightened, and he shook hands with Larmor before they once more faced
the war of the night.

The fire was out, it was bitter chill, yet hope was left--- a faint
sparkle--but still a stay for the soul of the tempest-tossed men. The
climax of the breeze seemed approaching at four o'clock; and, as Larmor
said, "it couldn't be very much worse." The skipper was then hanging as
he best could to the mizen rigging; Lewis had his arms tightly locked on
the port side round the futtock shrouds, and was cowering to get clear
of the scourging wind. There was a wild shriek forward.

"Water, skipper!"

Lewis looked up. There it was, as high as the mast-head, compact as a
wall, and charging with the level velocity of a horse regiment. The
doctor closed his eyes and thought, "Now for the grand secret." Then
came the immense pressure--the convulsive straining, the failing light,
the noise in the ears. First the young man found himself crushed under
some strangling incubus; then, with a shrieking gasp, he was in the
upper air. But he was under a hamper of ropes that strung him down as if
he were in a coop, and his dulled senses failed for a moment to tell
what ailed him. At last, after seconds that seeme