struck anywhere below Squam, we'll not be likely to get aid, even if the high tide has carried us over the outer bars and landed us right on the shore. Few, or none of the beaches, if I've heard rightly, are inhabited. But let us hope we're nigher the Hook, for, in that case, we must be close in, and there are farm-houses and fishing-cabins there, in sight of the sea."

His

He did not add, that, even if this should prove to be the case, it was extremely problematical whether assistance could be rendered to them, while the waves ran so high. secret opinion was, that the chance of escape was the very slightest, for he had no faith in the ship's timbers holding together till the gale subsided, even if they did till morning. But, brave as Kate was, he shrank from acquainting one so young, and who had every prospect of a happy life before her, that a speedy death was almost inevitable. Besides, he noticed the extreme terror of her aunt, who could, indeed, scarcely hold to her support, so unnerved was she by the peril of their situation.

For, even during this conversation, both the speakers had occasionally been almost carried from their feet. Nearly every surge swept more or less over the ship. Twice the master had to interpose to save Kate from being prostrated; and still more frequently his services were required in behalf of her aunt. Occupying a position between the two women, he was fortunately able to afford instant aid to either.

Meantime, the storm showed no symptoms of subsiding. The rain still fell in sheets, often stinging the bare hands of the victims like hail. The wind shrieked as if the sea had temporarily given up its wicked dead, who gibbered as they rushed past in the gloom.

The seas also seemed to run still higher. They came trooping on, fast and thick as hungry wolves; rushed by with a howl that fairly appalled the listeners; or leaped and snarled about the ship, as if eager for their prey, and grudg

ing every moment of delay. Now and then a roller, more colossal than its predecessors, would sweep the whole length of the deck, making a breach completely over the vessel, whose every timber quivered as if she was about to part.

The darkness, all this time, was palpable. Often it seemed as if the low sky and the upheaved waves were about to commingle above the doomed ship; and always, in looking seaward, the boundary line between the two was lost in a chaos of obscurity scarcely a hundred feet off.

CHAPTER IV.

MORNING.

Environ'd with a wilderness of sea;

Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave,
Expecting ever when some envious surge

Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.-Shakspeare.

It is, methinks, a morning full of fate!

It riseth slowly, as her sullen car,

Had all the weight of sleep and death hung at it!

She is not rosy-fingered, but swollen black.-Jonson.

"WE shall be more sheltered," continued the captain, “if we change our places. The waves, I see, don't sweep the deck further aft on the starboard side. Shall we try to get there? I doubt if you could hold out till morning here. Certainly your aunt could not. She is already more dead than alive."

Kate saw, at once, the wisdom of the suggestion. The ship, before going on the bar, had been running nearly parallel to the breakers, her head being slightly inclined seaward; but when the main-topsail went, she had whirled

around, and struck hard on, heeling to larboard: consequently she now lay almost at right angles with the surf. Along the inclined deck the waves continually washed. The stern, however, protected the after portion, especially the higher side; for the waters, even when they made a clean breach over the ship, parted right and left around this sheltered spot.

“But can we get there?" said Kate, in a whisper, glancing at her aunt, who, through fear and wet, was now almost incapable of moving.

"I think I can manage her," was the reply, in the same low tone, "if you can hold on here till I return."

"We will go, then?"

Captain Powell did not lose a moment. Putting one stalwart arm around Mrs. Warren, and holding on by the other, he watched his opportunity, and started on his perilous enterprise. Kate gazed upon them breathlessly. Once she feared that they would lose their footing, for a large billow, rushing in over the lower side, swept the decks through their whole length; but the captain fortunately had seen it coming, and had hurriedly told his companion to hold on with all her strength. When, therefore, the waters had subsided, Kate saw that the captain was already advancing again across the slippery decks; and the moment after she nad the satisfaction of beholding him safely deposit his companion in the sheltered nook, under the high stern.

Kate had never intended that the captain should return for her, because she knew how much her aunt's terror would be increased by being left alone; but she had said nothing of this purpose, in order to spare remonstrances. As it would not do to wait, she set out at once.

When Captain Powell, therefore, having arranged a seat for Mrs. Warren, turned to go for Kate, he saw the brave girl already more than half way on her route. He shouted o her to stop till he could come up, especially as he saw

a roller advancing; but she paid no heed to his words; and the next moment, as he had feared, she was hurried from sight under the huge wave as it swept the deck.

Striking the ship a little to the larboard of where he stood, this mass of dark water, that glistened like solid glass, went rushing up the sloping deck, in front of him, till it struck the bulwarks on the higher side, when dashing to pieces, a part flew crackling over in shattered fragments and clouds of spray, while the remaining portion, now churned to a milkwhite color, rushed forward with irresistible force, carrying everything before it, till it precipitated itself in cataracts over the bow, or found escape by spouting from the hawseholes, as if driven through them by a force-pump.

Under this enormous volume of water Kate disappeared entirely from sight. Captain Powell feared that she had not seen the approaching peril, and that, having no firm hold, she had been swept from her feet. Mrs. Warren, even in her half exhausted state, uttered a faint scream, and would have rushed forward, if she could have broken away. The captain looked eagerly to see Kate's white garments amid the foam, as the wave swept onward. It seemed, meantime, as if the waters would never subside from the deck. What was in reality not more than a few seconds, appeared to him interminable.

At last, the sight so eagerly desired greeted his eyes; and Kate was seen comparatively unharmed. Pausing only to recover breath, and watch that no more such surges were coming in, she darted forward with the swiftness of a deer, and reached his side, panting so that she could not, for a moment, answer his eager inquiries.

'Did I see it rolling in?" she said, at last. "Yes, and took a firm hold; but I thought it would never pass over me; I seemed to be an age beneath the water."

"It was fortunate it was no worse. I would not have taken one to a thousand pounds on your escape."

"Oh! you don't know what a sailor I can be," answered Kate, cheerfully. "Thank you," she said, as Captain Powell arranged a seat for her. "We shall get along nicely till morning now. How fortunate it's not winter, isn't it, aunt ?”

Seating herself at these words, she put her arm around her aunt, and drawing the head of the latter to her shoulder, began affectionately stroking the water from her aged relative's head. The poor creature could only answer this caress by tears, which flowed heavily down her cheeks, and by grateful looks.

"Are you cold, aunt? You shake your head. Yet you must be chilly, wet through as you are."

"If you please, Miss Aylesford," said the captain, “I think I can make my way into the cabin, and bring up some cloaks and shawls for you and your aunt." And without waiting for a reply, he left them.

In a few minutes he returned. The warmth of the dry over garments, gradually revived Mrs. Warren.

But even

when she regained the command of words, she could only deplore their situation, and repeat, again and again, that she knew they never would reach the shore alive.

Kate, in the meanwhile, did all she could to reassure her aunt, though far from feeling confident herself. Much of the time, when they were silent, she spent in inward prayer. And surely, if ever petitions could avert evil, those of that pure-minded, brave girl ought.

Slowly the night wore on. To those lonely watchers for the morning, the hours appeared almost an eternity. A hundred times they turned their longing eyes seaward, in hopes to see the horizon lighting up. Sometimes they were deceived into thinking the dawn at hand, by a temporary lifting of the clouds in the east; but the darkness soon closed in as profound as ever; and the disappointment was then all the more poignant from that momentary gleam of hope.