at moment--"port!--hard-a-port!"

The order was sharply repeated, and promptly obeyed, and the vessel came
round in time to escape destruction on a ledge of rocks, over which the
water was foaming furiously.

Instantly Malines went forward and began to give hurried directions to
the steersman. The danger was avoided, though the escape was narrow,
and the low rocks were seen passing astern, while the sea ahead seemed
to be free from obstruction, as far, at least, as the profound darkness
permitted them to see.

"They'll be all drowned like rats in a hole if we strike," muttered the
sailor, Hugh Morris, as if speaking to himself.

"Not if I can help it," said Joe Binney, who overheard the remark.

As he spoke he went to the little companion hatch, or door to the
fore-cabin, and tried to open it, but could not.

"Here, David," he cried, "lend a hand."

Applying their united strength--with some assistance from Teddy Malone,
and earnest encouragement from Mrs Lynch--they succeeded in bursting
open the hatch.

"Hallo! there," shouted Joe, in a voice that would have been creditable
to a boatswain, "come on deck if ye don't want to be drownded."

"Hooroo!" added Malone, "we're goin' to the bottom! Look alive wid ye."

"Ay, an' bring up the childers," yelled Mrs Lynch. "Don't lave wan o'
thim below."

Of course, the poor emigrants were not slow to obey these startling
orders.

The state of affairs was so serious that Malines either did not see, or
did not care for, what was going on. He stood on the forecastle looking
out intently ahead.

"Land on the starboard beam!" shouted Morris suddenly.

The mate was on the point of giving an order to the steersman when he
observed land looming on the port bow. Instantly he saw that all hope
was over. They were steering to inevitable destruction between two
ledges of rock! What he would have done in the circumstances no one can
tell, because before he had time to act the vessel struck with great
violence, and the terror-stricken passengers gave vent to that appalling
cry of fear which had so suddenly aroused Dominick Rigonda and his
brother.

As the vessel remained hard and fast, with her bow thrust high on the
rocks, the emigrants and crew found a partial refuge from the violence
of the waves on the forecastle. Hence the first wild shriek of fear was
not repeated. In a few minutes, however, a wave of greater size than
usual came rushing towards the vessel. For