torm."

"I should think it would be, from the indications of the barometer."

"Do you see that boat, Paul?" said Shuffles, pointing to one of the
Swiss small craft, which was laboring heavily in the billows.

"She is making bad weather of it," added Paul, as he examined the
position of the storm-tossed craft.

"The boatman don't seem to know what he is about," continued Shuffles,
who had for some time been studying the movements of the boat. "She
lowered her sail a while ago, and she seems to be rolling at the mercy
of the waves."

The steamer was headed towards her, and the party on board of her soon
discovered that the boatman was trying to put a reef in his sail.
Besides himself, the boat contained a lady.

"I suppose that is a Swiss boatman," said Shuffles. "If he is, he knows
no more about a boat than a mountaineer who never saw one."

"That's so," added Paul, anxiously.

"He has put her before the wind, and is trying to hoist his mainsail."

A fierce gust struck the canvas, as he began to hoist it, carrying out
the boom, and whirling the boat up into the wind. Certainly the person
on board of her had pluck enough; for he stuck to the halyards, though
he was nearly jerked overboard by the sudden pitching and rolling of
the craft. Recovering the sheet which had run out into the water, he
took his place at the helm. He flattened down the sail, when the flaw
had spent its force, and headed his boat towards Friedrichshafen. The
next gust that struck the sail carried her down so that the water
poured in over her lee rail by the barrel. The lady screamed lustily;
and the tones of her voice indicated that she did not belong to the
Swiss peasantry.

"Help! Help!" she shrieked; and her voice thrilled the souls of all on
board the steamer.

"Cannot something be done?" cried Grace.

"I don't see what can be done," replied Paul.

"The boatman is a fool!" said Shuffles, impatiently. "Why don't he let
out his sheet, or luff her up?"

"Can't you do something?" pleaded Grace, earnestly, as she clung to the
railing over the cabin ladder.

"Help! Help!" shouted the boatman, in good English; and it was plain
that he was not a Swiss.

Indeed, the lady and gentleman could now be seen plainly enough to
ascertain that they were English or American. Both of them were well
dressed, and both were quite young.

"We can launch the steamer's boat, if the captain will let us,"
suggested Paul.

The wind threw the boat rou