mpossibility of speech
in that shrieking tempest. Moreover, there was no need for speech.
Earth's petty conventions had fallen away from them. They were as
children standing hand in hand on the edge of the unknown, hearing the
same thunderous music, bound by the same magic spell.

Carey wondered later how long a time elapsed whilst they stood thus,
intently watching. It might have been for merely a few minutes, or it
might have been for the greater part of an hour. He never knew.

The spell broke at length suddenly and terribly, with a grinding crash
that flung them both sideways upon the slippery deck. He went down,
still clinging instinctively to the rail, and the next instant, by its
aid, he was on his feet again, dragging his companion up with him.

There followed a pause--a shuddering, expectant pause--while wind and
sea raged all around them like beasts of prey. And through it there came
the sound of the engine throbbing impotently spasmodically, like the
heart of a dying man. Quite suddenly it ceased, and there was a
frightful uproar of escaping steam. The deck on which they stood began
to tilt slowly upwards.

Carey knew what had happened. They had struck a rock in that awful
darkness, and they were going down with frightful rapidity into the
seething, storm-tossed water.

He had never been shipwrecked before, but, as by instinct, he realised
the madness of remaining where he was. A coil of rope lay almost at his
feet, and he stooped and seized it. There had come a brief lull in the
storm, but he knew that there was not a moment to spare. Still
supporting his companion, he began to bind the rope around them both.

She looked up at him quickly, and he saw her lips move in protest. She
even set her hands against his breast, as if to resist him. But he
overcame her almost savagely. It was no moment for argument.

The slope of the deck was becoming every instant more acute. The wind
was racing back across the sea. Above them--very far above them, it
seemed--there was a confusion of figures, but the tumult of wind and
waves drowned all other sound. Carey's feet began to slip on that awful
slant. They were sinking rapidly, rapidly.

He knotted the rope and gathered himself together. An instant he hung on
the rail, breathing deeply. Then with a jerk he relaxed his grip and
leaped blindly into the howling darkness, hurling himself and the woman
with him far into the raging sea.

* * *

It