This craft that had dared to resist the onset of the brute, to fight against it, to wound it, was feeling the full fury of the monster's rage. The gleaming lights of the doomed ship were waving lines that swept to and fro in the grip of those monstrous arms. The boat beneath Thorpe's feet was tossing in the waves that told of the titanic struggle. He had meant to look south for some sign of the oncoming destroyer, but in fearful fascination he stared spellbound where the masts of the trim yacht swept downward into the waves, where the green of her star-board lantern glowed faintly for an instant, then vanished, to leave only the darkness and the starlit sea. * * * * * A voice aroused him from his stupefaction. "Where am I ... where am I?" Ruth Allaire was asking in a frightened whisper. "That terrible thing--" She shuddered violently as memory returned to show again the horror she had witnessed. "Where are we, Robert? And the _Adelaide_--where is it?" Thorpe turned slowly. The insane turmoil of the past hour had numbed his brain, stunned him. "The _Adelaide_--" he mumbled, and groped fumblingly for coherent thoughts. He stared at the girl. She was half-risen from the floor where he had laid her, and the sight of her quivering face brought reason again to his mind. He knelt tenderly beside her and raised her in his arms. "Where is the yacht?" she repeated. "The _Adelaide_?" "Gone," Thorpe told her. "Lost!" A thought struck him. "Was your father on board, Ruth?" Ruth was dazed. "Lost," she repeated. "The _Adelaide_--lost!... No," she added in belated response to Thorpe's question. "Daddy was not there. But the men--Captain MacPherson ... that horrible monster...." She buried her face in her hands as she realized what Thorpe's silence meant. He held the trembling figure close as the girl whispered: "Where are we, Robert? Are we safe?" "We may win through yet," he told her through grim, set lips. He realized abruptly that he was seeing the face of Ruth Allaire in the light. He had left a lantern burning! He withdrew his arms from about her and sprang quickly to his feet to put out the tell-tale light. In darkness and quiet was their only safety. And he knew as he sprang that he had waited too long. A soft body crashed heavily on the deck outside. * * * * * The girl's voice was shrill with terror as she began a question. Thorpe's hand pressed upon her lips in the dark where he stood waiting--waiting.