This danger was, of course, greatly increased when the men began to move inward toward the hull, thus more fully exposing themselves to the fury of every surge that swept over it. And of this fact we soon had a most painful and melancholy illustration; for as the group, after waiting for two or three minutes for a favourable opportunity, essayed to scramble out of the rigging, and make their way aft along the brig's upturned side to her quarter--where they would be clear of the gear and rigging when they took to the water--a small and comparatively innocuous sea broke over the hull, which, harmless as it was compared with most of its predecessors, had still enough of weight and spite in it to sweep one of the poor fellows from his precarious foothold into the seething, hissing swirl to leeward. The man tossed his arms over his head, with a wild shriek for help, as the smother carried him along in its suffocating embrace, and Joe promptly made a spring for a spare _life-buoy_ that we had provided for such an emergency; but before it could be thrown the unfortunate wretch was hurled over the brig's mainyard as it lifted out of the water, and the next instant he disappeared beneath the foot of the main-topsail, the wide spaces of which immediately shut down upon and buried him as the roll of the hull once more submerged her spars. We never saw the poor fellow again, and there is no doubt that, caught and entangled beneath the cloths of the topsail, he was drowned there. Meanwhile, we were drifting rapidly away to leeward, and the full length of our warps was almost paid out; it was therefore imperative that the men on the wreck should act quickly. I shouted to them to this effect, and, awaking from the momentary stupefaction produced by the painfully sudden loss of their comrade, the remaining eight men made a dash for the brig's quarter, and succeeded in reaching it just as the vessel was uphove upon the crest of another tremendous sea. We saw them slip the string of life-buoys over their heads, and the next instant they were buried in the vast volume of water that broke, roaring and hissing, over the fabric that they stood upon. To our anxious minds it seemed an endless time before they reappeared; but at length we saw the string of life-buoys floating in the midst of the lacework of foam, some ten fathoms to leeward of the wreck, well clear of the heaving spars and snake-like coils of loose and unrove gear, eight out of the nine buoys having each a man in it. "Hurrah!" I shouted, swinging myself on deck out of the rigging. "We have them! Haul away gently upon the line, and let us get them alongside."