Myself and two or three more sprang up on the forward house, where three of the life-boats were made fast, and as we whipped out our knives I happened to look aft and saw the captain and steward on the poop trying to get the gig free before the ship went down. Miss Marion and her mother were holding to the spanker boom, both bearing up nobly in this awful crisis. I knew they would be safe in the gig along with the captain, which was a great load off my mind. “How shall we get water and stores for the boats?” someone cried. How, indeed? It was impossible. We had just got one boat free when the ship gave a plunge, and we felt her going. Everyone was tugging at the boats; a few were yelling and screaming; and then all hands were in the water. I had hardly come to the surface when I felt a terrible blow on the head, and dimly realized that a piece of wreckage had struck me. There was a gurgling sound in my ears,—that was the last thing I recollect. * * * * * I was lying on my back with my eyes open looking up at the sky. The new moon was shining, and a large bright star twinkled not far away. I vaguely felt that one of my hands was in the water, and knew that my limbs were being chafed by some person. A kind of dreamy stupor was on me, and though these ideas passed slowly through my brain, they seemed to make no impression, and I didn’t even wonder where I was, or how I came there. Some one spoke to me. “Mr. Morgan, try and brace up a bit. You know Simms, the carpenter—” The voice sounded strange and unnatural. “Yes, I know Simms, the carpenter,” I muttered; but the words meant no more to me than does some senseless phrase to the parrot that mechanically repeats it. “Them’s the first words you’ve spoke, sir. Now let me pour a little whiskey down your throat.” The whiskey must have done me good, for I began to get my senses back after a while and became conscious of a terrible throbbing in my head. Putting my hand to my forehead where the pain was, my fingers came in contact with blood. That brought me round more than anything else, and I shut my eyes and tried hard to remember where I was. “Mr. Morgan, it won’t do to give up like this. We can’t be over sixty miles from the coast, and right in the track of the coal fleet at that.” The voice sounded familiar now, and I knew it was the carpenter speaking. “How did we come here, and where are the rest? Where is the ship?” I asked, still a good deal bewildered. There was a groan and a short pause before the answer came. “No mortal man will ever set eyes on the _St. Lawrence_ again, Mr. Morgan, nor on any of her crew but you and me.” It took me some minutes to realize those awful words. “But Captain Fairley and his family—they escaped?” “All gone, sir; all but us two.” “How were we saved?” I asked, as soon as my mind had grasped the fact that out of two dozen lives, ours alone had been spared.