bandbox."

"Aye, that it would, Ben. I thought we had made rather a mess of it at
first; but it is well that, as you say, we ain't in the line of the
drift."

Nineteen persons were brought on board--the captain being the last to
come along the line. The first four were women, or rather, the first two
were women; the third a girl of ten years old, and the fourth a woman.
Then came a middle-aged man, evidently a passenger. Then came ten
sailors, a steward, two mates, and the captain.

"Is that all?" Ben asked as the captain stepped from the slings.

"I am the last," the captain said. "Thank God all are saved who were
left on board when you came in sight. We all owe our lives to you and
your men. I had little hope that one of us would live to see the night
when we made you out coming towards us. But there is no time to talk.
The ship cannot hold together many minutes longer, and when she breaks
up in earnest some of the timbers will be sure to come this way."

"I have got the buoy with a length of rope on the chain ready to slip,"
Ben said, "and a spar lashed to the hawser. Now, Tom, let the chain out;
I will jump below and knock out the shackle. Now, captain, if one or two
of your men will lend us a hand to get up some canvas, we shall be out
of it all the sooner. And please get them all except the women out of
the cabin, and put them aft. We want her head well up for running before
this sea."

"Now, lads, tumble out and lend a hand," the captain said. "I see you
have got some cocoa here. Well, all who have had a mug come out at once,
and let the others get aft as soon as they have had their share. The
ladies are all right, I hope?"

"Quite right, captain," one of the men answered, "and begin to feel warm
already; which is natural enough, for this cabin is like an oven after
the deck of the _Petrel_."

"Now, skipper, do you give the orders," the captain said as Ben took the
tiller.

"Run up the foresail and haul in the starboard-sheet. That will bring
her head round."

"Now let go the cable and hawser." There was a sharp rattle of chains,
and the cry "All free!"

"Slack off that weather-sheet and haul down on the lee-sheet," was
Tripper's next order. "Not too much. Have you got the jib hooked on to
the traveller? Out with it, then. Now, up with her. Now man the throat
and peak halliards. Up with her. Slack out the main-sheet well, and boom
the sail out with an oar. Trice the main-tack up as far as it will go