the stranded craft.

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE `FELICIDAD'.

The first lieutenant, looking exceedingly worried and distressed, was at
the gangway to meet us.

"Well, Mr Young," exclaimed the captain as he stepped in on deck, "what
is the meaning of this?"

"I wish I could tell you, sir," answered Young. "There has been foul
play of some sort; but who is the guilty party I know no more than you
do. As you will remember, it blew very hard last night when you left
us; and for some time after you had gone I remained on the forecastle,
watching the ship as she rode to her anchor. She strained a little at
her cable when the heavier puffs struck her, but by no means to such an
extent as to arouse the slightest anxiety; and after I had been watching
for fully an hour, finding that the holding ground was good, and that
even during the heaviest of the puffs the strain upon the cable was only
very moderate, I felt perfectly satisfied as to the safety of the ship,
and retired to the quarter-deck, leaving two men on the look-out on the
forecastle, two in the waist, and one on either quarter; for although I
anticipated no danger, I was fully alive to the responsibility that you
had laid upon me in entrusting me with the care of the ship, as well as
to the fact that in the event of a chance encounter just hereabout, we
were far more likely to meet with an enemy than a friend. The same
feeling animated the men too, I am sure, for the look-outs never
responded to my hail with more alacrity, or showed themselves more
keenly watchful than they did last night; yet I had barely been off the
forecastle half-an-hour when we discovered that we were adrift; and
before I could let go the second anchor we were hard and fast upon this
bank, fore and aft, and that, too, just upon the top of high-water. I
of course at once hoisted out our remaining boats, and ran away the
stream-anchor to windward; but, working as we were in the dark, it took
us a long time to do it; and I then sent down the royal and topgallant--
yards and masts. When daylight came I examined the cable, thinking that
possibly it might have chafed through on a rock; but to my surprise I
found that it had been clean cut at the water's edge. How it was done,
or who did it, is impossible to guess, for although I have very strictly
questioned both the forecastle look-outs, they persist in the statement
that they saw nothing, and were aware of nothing until the ship was
found t