"Look here, my lad," I said. "If what you say is true, that only your
mother, your sister, you and I are left aboard this ship, somebody will
have to take charge of things, and that somebody will be myself. There
will be a multitude of things to be done, and you will have to lend a
hand. And I will see that you do so. Henceforth it will be I who will
give orders; and--understand me, my young friend--if I give you an
order, you will execute it, or I'll know the reason why. Hitherto, it
seems to me, you have been spoiled by too much indulgence; but if this
ship proves to be a wreck, as I more than suspect is the case, there
will be no more spoiling for you, and I'll see if I cannot make
something like a man of you. Now, just turn that saying over in your
mind, and don't let me have any more of your nonsense. Now we will go
and see what can be done for your mother. Come along!"

For a moment I really thought that the boy meant to strike me, but I
kept my eyes steadily staring into his, and presently I saw that I had
mastered him, for the moment at all events. The gleam of mingled anger
and defiance faded out of his eyes, and he muttered: "All right! let's
go."

As we wended our way from my cabin to the drawing-room, abaft which Mrs
Vansittart's cabin was situate, I had time to note several matters. The
first of these was that the ship was evidently hard and fast aground;
for although she rolled slightly from time to time the motion was not
continuous like that of a floating ship, but intermittent, with
intervals when she did not move at all, but lay motionless with a list
to starboard. Also, when she moved, there was a gritty, grinding sound,
which at once suggested to me that she was lying upon a bed of coral.
There was also another sound, a bumping sound, accompanied by a
perceptible jar of the hull, recurring at frequent and pretty regular
intervals, which I set down to the bumping of wreckage alongside. The
next thing I observed was that the lee side of the deck was about a foot
or more deep in water, showing that a very considerable quantity must
have come below, the greater part of it probably through the hatchways,
although some had no doubt come in through the open ports.

Then I went up the hatchway ladder to the main-deck. Heavens! what a
picture of wreck and ruin I there beheld! The three hollow steel masts
were snapped off close to the deck, and now, with all attached, were
over the starboard si