re a hundred yards off, and glad of it.

Well, Sir, they tried ship after ship, the blessed night through,
till hope was nigh dead in them, and their bodies ached with
weariness and hunger. Long before they reached Devil's Point the
tumble had upset Hancock's stomach completely. He had lost his oar;
somehow it slipped off between the thole-pins, and in his weakness he
forgot to cry out that 'twas gone. It drifted away in the dark--the
night all round was black as your hat, the squalls hiding the stars--
and he dropped off his thwart upon the bottom-boards. "I'm a dying
man," he groaned, "and I don't care. I don't care how soon it comes!
'Tis all over with me, and I shall never see my dear Sally no more!"

So they tossed till day broke and showed Drake's Island ahead of
them, and the whole Sound running with a tidy send of sea from the
south'ard, grey and forlorn. Some were for turning back, but
Pengelly wouldn't hear of it. "We must make Cawsand Bay," says he,
"if it costs us our lives. Maybe we'll find half a dozen ships
anchored there and ready for sea."

So away for Cawsand they pulled, hour after hour, Hancock all the
while wanting to die, and wondering at the number of times an empty
man could answer up to the call of the sea.

The squalls had eased soon after daybreak, and the sky cleared and
let through the sunshine as they opened the bay and spied two
sloops-of-war and a frigate riding at anchor there. Pulling near
with the little strength left in them, they could see that the
frigate was weighing for sea. She had one anchor lifted and the
other chain shortened in: her top-sails and topgallant sails were
cast off, ready to cant her at the right moment for hauling in.
An officer stood ready by the crew manning the capstan, and right aft
two more officers were pacing back and forth with their hands clasped
under their coat-tails.

"Lord!" groaned Pengelly, "if my poor Ann's aboard of she, we'll
never catch her!" He sprang up in the stern sheets and hailed with
all his might.

Small enough chance had his voice of reaching her, the wind being
dead contrary: and yet for the moment it looked as if the two
officers aft had heard; for they both stepped to the ship's side, and
one put up a telescope and handed it to the other. And still the
crew of the gig, staring over their shoulders while they pulled
weakly, could see the men by the capstan standing motionless and
waiting for orders.

"Seems a'mos