oat could live in
such a raging sea, of a surety no boat could land on such a coast--at
least not the coast as he knew it, the coast where was the Mackie
selection--and the Mackie selection was somewhere hereabouts, you might
see the light of their kitchen fire from--Good God! it came upon him
like a flash--was that the light that had led them to destruction?

But there was no time for questions like that. The idea passed through
his mind as he heard the skipper shout,

"Port watch, rig tackles! Starboard watch, see port life-boat all clear
for going out!"

The raging wind and sea seemed to have gone down for a moment, now they
had accomplished their end. The moon came out again, and he saw the
watch at the skids, and the tall figure of the first mate as he stood on
the boat, ripping off the covering with a sheath knife. One step forward
he made to go to his assistance when there rose a towering wall of dark
water to wind'ard.

"Stand from under--stand from under!" yelled every throat, but it was
too late. It was doubtful if they heard, it was certain they had no
time to get away. The wave came on resistlessly, and when the water had
passed over them, boat and skids, part of the bulwarks, the first mate,
and half the starboard watch had been swept away. There was a wailing
cry above the roar of the seas, but it was impossible to say who had
gone.

"Gone to port," muttered the bo'sun, "an' darned quick too!" And
that was their requiem, for now it was each man for himself. The old
skipper's voice was silent, and the second mate feared he too must have
been carried overboard by the last sea.

"Jump for a blue light," he said to a boy next him, who was clinging to
the broken skylight, "they're in the locker in the cabin."

The lad hesitated, then swung himself down, and in a minute or so
returned, clambering back through the skylight holding two blue lights
in his hand. He struck the end of one and illuminated the whole place
with the ghastly glare. The _Vanity_, but a few minutes before a trim,
smart ship, lay there on the reef a total wreck. The bright light showed
her broken bulwarks with the seas making clean sweeps through them, the
decks one mass of wreckage in hopeless confusion, cordage and rigging,
splintered yards, and shattered deck-house--all alike had suffered a sea
change. The foremast and the mainmast were gone, and their stumps stood
up jagged and torn, but the mizzen lower mast still remained, and t