ompanions? You surely cannot be the only two saved from
the wreck?"

"I am greatly afraid we are," Jack replied; "and we were saved almost
by a miracle. I hardly expect you to believe me when I tell you." He
then related the events of the storm, and the manner in which they had
reached land.

"It is certainly extraordinary," the lady said; "but it does not seem to
me by any means impossible, for I have heard that in these terrible
cyclones houses have been taken up and carried long distances, and I can
quite understand the same thing happening to a boat."

An hour later Mr. Darcy the collector returned, and after hearing the
boys' story said he would at once cause inquiries to be made along the
coast whether any white men had been thrown up alive.

"I fear that there is but little hope," he said, "for the surf on the
coast in a cyclone like that we have had is tremendous, and even were
anyone to float in on a spar he would probably be dashed to pieces when
he approached the shore, and if he escaped that would be carried out
again by the under tow. However, I will cause every inquiry to be made.
The destruction has been terrible: numbers of villages have been swept
away, and I hear that a great number of native craft are missing. Of
course you will stop here for a few days with us to recover from your
fatigue. I will rig you out until you can get fresh clothes made."

The lads stopped for a week under the hospitable roof of Mr. Darcy. No
news came of any Europeans having been washed ashore alive, though
several dead bodies were reported as having been cast up at various
points. At the end of the week they were rigged up afresh, and Mr. Darcy
procured passages for them in a dhow, bound for Calcutta. He laughed at
the idea of the boys paying for their clothes or passage, and said he
was only too pleased that he and his wife should have been of service to
them.

They arrived at Calcutta without adventure, and at once reported
themselves to the agent of the _Wild Wave_ and told the story of her
loss. Here again they experienced the warm-hearted hospitality which is
so general in India, the agent taking them out to his house and
installing them there until the next steamer was to sail for England. He
had telegraphed upon the day of their arrival to Mr. Godstone, and
received an answer requesting him to take passages home for them to
England, where they duly arrived without any exciting incident.

Seven years have pass