CHAPTER XXVII.
A MEETING IN A STRANGE CITY.
For the moment after the foretopmast was struck and part of the wreckage came tumbling almost at his feet, Franklin was too startled to either speak or move. He held on to the rail and gazed before him, with his eyes filled with horror and alarm over the situation. He had never witnessed anything similar to it, and to him it was as if the end of everything was close at hand.
But he was soon aroused from his inaction by Captain Cosgrove, who seized him by the shoulder and shook him as a dog might shake a rat.
"Didn't you hear what I said?" shouted the owner of the Sunflower "Stand by to clear away the wreck."
"Yes, sir," murmured Franklin, and he moved along the deck after Ben Stanhope, who had disappeared in the direction of the forecastle.
Every step was full of grave peril to the young electrician. The vessel was pitching up and down
