help.

"Watts is all right," he soothed her. "Two of the men are seeing to
him. And the rats are all gone now. There are none here!"

"Are you sure?"

"Quite sure."

"What became of them?"

"They are all--we left them behind on the ship."

Suddenly she clung to him.

"Don't let them send me back to the ship," she implored.

"No, no. You are safe now."

"Of course I am safe, but I dread that ship. Why did I ever come on
board? Captain Coke said he would sink her. I told you----"

"Steady! Keep a little nearer the rocks on your left. The passage is
narrow here."

Hozier raised his voice somewhat, and purposely hurried her. But she
was not to be repressed.

"Poor ship! What had she done that she should be battered on the
rocks?" she wailed.

"You must not talk," he said firmly, well knowing that if the sailors
and firemen lumbering close behind had not heard her earlier comment it
was due solely to the blustering wind. They were skirting the seaward
face of the rocky islet on which they had found salvation. The sun was
blazing at them sideways from a wide expanse of blue sky. The rear
guard clouds of the gale were scurrying away over the horizon in front
of their upward path. Somehow, Philip's sailor's brain was befogged.
Those clouds must have blown to the northeast. If that were so, what
was the sun doing in the southeast at this time of the day? It had
hardly budged a point from the quarter in which some fitful gleams
shone when that mad thing happened near the windlass. Thinking he was
still dizzy from the effects of the blow, which the girl had ascribed
to the bursting of a shell, Philip glanced at his watch. It was
twenty-five minutes past eight! Yet he distinctly remembered eight
bells being struck while Coke was telling him from the bridge to give
the anchor thirty-five fathoms of cable. Was it possible that they had
gone through so much during those few minutes? If he were really
light-headed, then sun and clouds and watch were conspiring to keep him
so.

Iris, chilled by his stern tone, nevertheless noted his action. Still
unable to concentrate her thoughts on more than one topic, and that to
the exclusion of all else, she asked the time. He told her. He
awaited some expression of surprise on her part, provided it were,
indeed, true that only twenty-five minutes had sped since the
_Andromeda_ was quietly preparing to drop anchor off South Point. But
she received his