'It was as well that I reached the mail-boat. There was a compass in
it, but the idiots had managed to fill the boat half full of water
somehow or another, and none of the crew seemed to know what was
required of them. Then the _Visigoth_ went down and took every one
with her--ships generally do that; the corpses don't cumber the sea
for some time.

'What did I do? I kept all the boats together, and headed into the
track of the coasting steamers. The aggravating thing was the thought
that we were close to land as far as a big steamer was concerned, and
in the middle of eternity as far as regarded a little boat. The sea
looks hugeous big from a boat at night.'

'Oh, Christ, whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their ravings at Thy word,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep
And calm amidst its rage did keep,--
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!'

sang the passengers cheerily.

'That harmonium is disgracefully out of tune,' said the Captain. 'The
sea air affects their insides. Well, as I was saying, we settled down
in the boat. The Captain's wife was unconscious; she lay in the bottom
of the boat and moaned. I was glad she wasn't threshing about the boat:
but what I did think was wrong, was the way the two men passengers
behaved. They were useless with funk--out and out fear. They lay in
the boat and did nothing. Fetched a groan now and again to show they
were alive; but that was all. But the other woman was a jewel. Damn