de, still fast to the hull by the standing and
running gear, which lay, a confused raffle of wire and hemp, across the
deck. The mizenmast, heel upward, leaned against the side of the poop
in a slanting position, showing that it had fallen forward as well as
sideways; and immediately to leeward, in the water that heaved and
seethed round us, rose and fell a tangle of wrecked spars, sails, and
rigging. Every inch of the bulwarks, from poop to topgallant forecastle
on both sides, had disappeared, leaving only the bent and broken steel
stanchions standing here and there. The deckhouses were gone, as were
every one of the boats except the motor launch, and even she was
represented only by a shattered, fragmentary skeleton. Four of the six
main-deck guns in the starboard battery were either smashed or missing
altogether; and, in short, the whole appearance of the main-deck was
such as to suggest that the ship had been repeatedly swept from end to
end by a succession of tremendously heavy seas.

All these things I observed during my brief passage from the after
hatchway to the face of the poop. I also observed that no land was in
sight from the main-deck; therefore, if we had hit an unknown atoll
during the night, it must be so small as to be entirely hidden by the
poop.

Followed submissively enough by the boy, who now seemed tongue-tied, I
passed through the cabin into the drawing-room; and it gave me quite a
sharp pain to see the dreadful havoc that had been wrought in that
splendid apartment since I had left it only a few hours before. For not
only had all the ports been left open during the night, for the sake of
coolness, but the skylight and companion had both been swept away, and,
from the appearance of things, tons of water must have flooded the
place. Even now, when it had had time to drain away to a small extent,
the lee side of the room was flooded to the depth of fully four feet,
and chairs, ottomans, table, grand piano, organ--the latter capsized--in
fact, everything movable had settled away to leeward, and now lay in a
confused heap in the water. The rich carpet was everywhere sodden,
several of the electric-light shades were smashed, two or three of the
pictures had fallen; in short, the destruction was practically complete.
And there, in the midst of all the ruin, stood poor little Anthea, a
most forlorn and pathetic-looking object.

I hastened toward her with the idea of saying something comforting