Still there was no answer, and though the flood of light that dyed the
water blood-red struck out every rope and spar distinct and clear, his
straining eyes could see no living soul aboard. As they came nearer,
they could distinguish the gilded letters of her name.

"What is it, men?" cried Frere, his voice almost drowned amid the roar
of the flames. "Can you see?"

Rufus Dawes, impelled, it would seem, by some strong impulse of
curiosity, stood erect, and shaded his eyes with his hand.

"Well--can't you speak? What is it?"

"The Hydaspes!"

Frere gasped.

The Hydaspes! The ship in which his cousin Richard Devine had sailed!
The ship for which those in England might now look in vain! The Hydaspes
which--something he had heard during the speculations as to this missing
cousin flashed across him.

"Back water, men! Round with her! Pull for your lives!"

Best's boat glided alongside.

"Can you see her name?"

Frere, white with terror, shouted a reply.

"The Hydaspes! I know her. She is bound for Calcutta, and she has five
tons of powder aboard!"

There was no need for more words. The single sentence explained the
whole mystery of her desertion. The crew had taken to the boats on the
first alarm, and had left their death-fraught vessel to her fate. They
were miles off by this time, and unluckily for themselves, perhaps, had
steered away from the side where rescue lay.

The boats tore through the water. Eager as the men had been to come,
they were more eager to depart. The flames had even now reached the
poop; in a few minutes it would be too late. For ten minutes or more not
a word was spoken. With straining arms and labouring chests, the
rowers tugged at the oars, their eyes fixed on the lurid mass they were
leaving. Frere and Best, with their faces turned back to the terror
they fled from, urged the men to greater efforts. Already the flames had
lapped the flag, already the outlines of the stern carvings were blurred
by the fire.

Another moment, and all would be over. Ah! it had come at last. A dull
rumbling sound; the burning ship parted asunder; a pillar of fire,
flecked with black masses that were beams and planks, rose up out of
the ocean; there was a terrific crash, as though sea and sky were coming
together; and then a mighty mountain of water rose, advanced, caught,
and passed them, and they were alone--deafened, stunned, and breathless,
in a sudden horror of thickest darkness, and a silence like