here was but a
horror of great darkness, a thunder of sound, and a chilly creeping of
salt-water up his legs, as if the great monster licked his victim with
his lifeless tongue. Straight in front of them, at the very edge of the
horizon, he thought the little clam-digger's fire opened a tunnel of
greenish light into the night, "dull and melancholy as a scene in
Hades." They saw the men sitting around the blaze with their hands
clasped about their knees, the woman's figure alone, and watching.

"Mary!" cried the old man, in the shrill extremity of his agony.

His companion shivered.

"Take this from me, boy!" cried Doctor Bowdler, trying to tear off the
life-preserver. "It's a chance. I've neither wife nor child to care if I
live or die. You're young; life's beginning for you. I've done with it.
Ugh! this water is deadly cold. Take it, I say."

"No," said the other, quietly restraining him.

"Can you swim?"

"In this sea?"--with a half-smile, and a glance at the tossing breakers.

"You'll swim? Promise me you'll swim! And if I come to shore and see
Mary?"

Birkenshead had regained the reticent tone habitual to him.

"Tell her, I wish I had loved her better. She will understand. I see the
use of love in this last hour."

"Is there any one else?"

"There used to be some one. Twenty years ago I said I would come, and
I'm coming now."

"I don't hear you."

Birkenshead laughed at his own thought, whatever it was. The devil who
had tempted him might have found in the laugh an outcry more bitter than
any agony of common men.

The planks beneath their feet sank inch by inch. They were shut off
from the larboard side of the vessel. For a time they had heard oaths
and cries from the other men, but now all was silent.

"There is no help coming from shore,"--(the old man's voice was
weakening,)--"and this footing is giving way."

"Yes, it's going. Lash your arms to me by your braces, Doctor. I can
help you for a few moments."

So saying, Birkenshead tore off his own coat and waistcoat; but as he
turned, the coming breaker dashed over their heads, he heard a faint
gasp, and when his eyes were clear of the salt, he saw the old man's
gray hair in the midst of a sinking wave.

"I wish I could have saved him," he said,--then made his way as best he
could by feet and hands to a bulk of timber standing out of the water,
and sitting down there, clutched his hands about his knees, very much as
he used to do when he wa