"`Take care of my wife, Mr Tanner,' cried the captain to the first mate, as he sprang over the side; `see if you can bring her to.' "We got clear of the ship, and with very misdoubting hearts pulled away in the direction where we hoped to find any of our shipmates who might still have kept themselves afloat. By this time there was a good deal of sea running, stirred up by the violence of the squall, though not so much as there would have been had we not been under the lee of the land. As the boat rose to the top of a wave we fancied that we could see one of the poor fellows who had been cast off the yard struggling in the distance, but when we got up to the spot he had disappeared. A cry from a drowning man was heard in another direction, and away we pulled towards it, but before we could clutch the poor fellow he had sunk beneath the waves. "A third man was seen at a distance still striking out boldly--now he rose to the top of a wave, now he sank into the trough of the sea. We made sure that we at least should save him. Every nerve was strained as we bent to our oars to reach the swimmer. He saw us coming--he felt certain of being saved; but a power greater than his or ours was his enemy, and when we were within twenty yards of him we saw him throw up his arms in despair, his eyeballs started from his head, and with a shriek of agony he sank beneath the foaming waves. He was the last--the others had disappeared, and no trace of them was to be seen. "Our search had been fruitless. Intent upon our object, we had not observed where we were going. Now, as we looked up to search around for our other shipmates, we saw directly before us the ill-looking witch in her skiff, turning her countenance, with a malignant scowl, over her shoulder to look at us. The hideous sight seemed to drive the captain mad. "`Give way my men, give way,' he shouted, in a voice trembling with earnestness; `give way; we'll overtake the cursed hag, and I'll punish her for haunting us in this way.' "With a strange species of infatuation we bent to our oars as ordered, in the hopes of catching her. We might as well have attempted to overtake the whirlwind. The more we strained at our oars, the louder and more insulting became her cackling shrieks of derisive laughter.