CHAPTER XI.

Stranded.

When the ship stranded on the reef all on board were thrown from their
feet, and the anguishing cries of the shipwrecked mingled with the
creaking of the vessel and the roaring of the waves. The two boys
found themselves in utter darkness in a corner of the cabin. Willy,
the first to recover himself sufficiently to speak, said:

"Oh, Peppo, are you alive?"

"I thought the ship was sinking and that we were drowning. Oh, if we
had only all repented and atoned," groaned Peppo.

"Hear your people calling," said Willy.

"They are not baptized and will go to hell. Shall we not try to
baptize them? Come, quickly, let us try. If I could only find the
door--here it is. Come, come."

Willy wished to make the effort with his little friend acting as
interpreter and preacher, but scarcely had he and Peppo groped their
way out of the cabin before they found themselves caught in a crowd of
human beings, who screaming and howling at the top of their lungs, were
making their way from the steerage into which the water was streaming.
The prow of the ship had struck the reef and was high above the water
while great waves washed over the stern. All were crowding up the
narrow gangway and soon with three hundred Chinaman on deck there was