mite the Doraine with all their might under
the cover of a black and storm-rent sky. And what was to become of the
vessel, floundering in the path of the hurricane?

Late afternoon brought the forerunner of the gale, a whistling, howling
squall that frantically strove, it would seem, to outrace the baleful
clouds. Then the Doraine was in the thick of the furious revel of sea
and sky, plunging, leaping, rolling like a monstrous cork....

How she managed to weather the storm, God knows, and He alone. At the
mercy of wave and wind, she was tossed and hammered and racked for
two frightful days and nights, and yet she remained afloat, battered,
smashed, raked from stem to stern, stripped of everything the tempest
could wrench from her in its fury. And yet on the third day, when the
storm abated, the sturdy ship was still riding the waves, flayed but
un-conquered, and the baffled sea was licking the sides of her once more
with servile though deceitful tenderness.

But there was water in the hold. The ship was leaking badly.

Up from the stifling interior straggled the unhappy inmates. They looked
again upon the unbelievable: a smiling, dancing sea of blue under a
canopy clean and spotless. It was unbelievable. Even the stouthearted
Captain and the faithful mate, blear-eyed and haggard from loss of
sleep, were filled with wonder.

"I can't understand it," muttered Mr. Mott a dozen times that day,
shaking his head in a bewildered sort of way. "I can't understand how
she did it. By right, she ought to be at the bottom of the ocean, and
here she is on top of it, same as ever."

"Do you believe in God, Mr. Mott?" asked the Captain solemnly.

"I do," said Mr. Mott emphatically. After a moment he added: "I've been
a long time coming to it, Captain Trigger, but I do. Nothing short of an
Almighty Being could have steered this ship for the past two days."

The Captain nodded his head slowly, his gaze fixed on something above
and far beyond the horizon.

"I suppose it's too much to ask of Him, though," said he, audibly
completing a thought.

Mr. Mott evidently had been thinking of the same thing, for he said:

"I'm sorry to say it's gained about two feet on the pumps since last
night."

Captain Trigger's face was very grave. "That means a couple of days more
at the outside." His eyes rested speculatively on the three lifeboats
still hanging above the starboard rail. There was another being repaired
on the port side. "More