not an inch of space not covered with water which was unoccupied. In
their fear of death they climbed what was left of the rigging and hung
there like monkeys calling upon Buddha and all the heathen gods for
help and giving utterance to wild, maniacal shrieks. The boys would
have been pushed overboard in this panic had it not been that they fell
in with the Captain and helmsman who protected them as best they could.

"Tell your people," cried Green to Peppo, "that there is no need of
this frightful, insane howling. We are so securely lodged that we
cannot possibly sink, and the wreck will hold together until morning.
Five minutes ago when I saw that we were going to strike the reef, I
wouldn't have given a pipeful of tobacco for all our lives." And the
Captain said to Willy in a more friendly manner than he had ever
spoken: "You prayed well, my little man."

"Will the first officer also be good to me?" asked Willy, happy to
receive a kind word.

"Hello, Redfox," cried Green, "we quite forgot you in this mad
scramble," and the helmsman went to him and helped him along the deck.
"We are all in the same fix, and as Christians who pray 'Our Father' we
should forgive and be brothers. Here is my hand." The first officer
refused the proffered hand, turning his back on the honest helmsman.

The night with its raging storm wore away; towards morning the moon
showing itself in a rift in the clouds lighted the scene. Scarcely two
ships' lengths away the sea thundered on the beach; farther out the
waves, mountain-high, rolled in endless succession; to the right and
left extended the reef like a wall, several meters above the water,
except in one place it sank down so abruptly that even at low tide it