hard enough to unship the main capstan. Even then Wardle would not have ventured to rouse him if he had not fancied that he saw some dismasted vessel far to leeward in the mirk and smother of the storm.
"I think I saw a vessel just now down to loo'ard," screamed the mate as the skipper made a bolt for him under the weather cloth on the mizzen rigging. "Dismasted I think, sir."
He saw the 'old man's' eye brighten and snap.
"Where did you say?" he roared; and before he could hear they had to wait till a singing squall went over.
"To loo'ard," said the mate again; and the next moment the skipper saw what he looked for.
"Not dismasted, on her beam ends," he shouted. And in a few more minutes, as the dawn poured across the waste of howling seas, Wardle saw that the 'old man' was right.
"Poor devils," he said, "it's all over with them."
The word that there was a vessel in difficulties soon brought out the watch on deck, who
