impression upon her, and she forged stolidly forward to her doom.

A few minutes later her keel came into violent contact with a coral
reef, and as she grated slowly over it, the poor thing seemed to
shiver from stem to stern. The shock was so severe that I was
thrown heavily to the deck. Bruno could make nothing whatever of
it, so he found relief in doleful howls. While the vessel remained
stuck on the rocks, I was looking out anxiously from the rigging,
when, without a moment's warning, a gigantic wave came toppling and
crashing overboard from the stern, overwhelming me in the general
destruction that followed. I was dashed with tremendous force on
to the deck, and when I picked myself up, bruised and bleeding, the
first thing I was conscious of was a deathly stillness, which
filled me with vague amazement, considering that but a few moments
before my ears had been filled with the roar and crash of the
breakers. And I could see that the storm was still raging with
great fury, although not a sound reached my ears.

Gradually the horrible truth dawned upon me--I WAS STONE DEAF! The
blow on the head from the great wave had completely deprived me of
all sense of hearing. How depressed I felt when I realised this
awful fact no one can imagine. Nevertheless, things were not
altogether hopeless, for next morning I felt a sudden crack in my
left ear, and immediately afterwards I heard once more the dull
roar of the surf, the whistling of the wind, and the barking of my
affectionate dog. My right ear, however, was permanently injured,
and to this day I am decidedly deaf in that organ. I was just
beginning to think that we had passed over the most serious part of
the danger, when to my utter despair I again heard that hideous
grating sound, and knew she had struck upon another reef. She