The glare of the burning ship lit up the surrounding water with a weird radiance, in which they could see the loaded boats, already lowered, tossing helplessly, the crowds on each being so great that the sailors could not use their oars. "Say, Ned, suppose the boiler busts!" suddenly exclaimed the cheerful Herc, as the last boat was swung out. "No use thinking of such possibilities," rejoined Ned decisively. "Well, I can't help it," protested Herc indignantly. "I remember when that thresher blew up to grandpa's. I guess this would be something like that, eh, Ned?" "Only more so," was the dry reply. Suddenly the notification that all was ready for the lowering of the last boat rang out. As this one was to be the final lifeboat to leave the ship, it was put overside before any one boarded it. The officers of the _Rhode Island_, the six members of the crew remaining, the boys and Commander Dunham getting into it by sliding down the falls. At last they were all on board, and the order was given to shove off. No time was lost in doing this, as the _Rhode Island_ was by this time a mass of flames in her forepart, and it seemed impossible that she could float much longer. "Do you anticipate being picked up shortly, captain?" asked the boys' friend of the commander of the _Rhode Island_. "Why, I don't expect that we'll have to drift about very long," was the reply. "You see, the Sound is well traveled, and some ship must have seen the flare of the fire." It was bitterly cold in the storm-swept waters of the Sound, but the boys checked any tendency they might have felt to complain by thinking of the plight of the women and children in the other boats. It is doubtful as the newspapers at the time pointed out, that there would have been no fatalities attendant on the wreck of the _Rhode Island_, if but a little less than half an hour after they had cast adrift from the ill-fated steamer, the _Kentucky_, of the Joy Line, had not hove in sight. By this time the _Rhode Island_ had burned to the water's edge, and sank with a noisy roar. The _Kentucky_ bore down with all speed on the drifting boatloads of half-frozen men and women, and within an hour every one of the passengers had been picked up and given warm food and drink and attention. As the _Kentucky_, having performed her rescue work, pursued her way to New York, the boys mingled with the excited crowd of the saved that thronged her lighted saloon. While they walked about, overhearing interesting scraps of conversation relating to the rescues of several of the passengers, they were startled by a sudden cry in a woman's voice: "There he is! There he is, the coward!" There was a rush to the part of the saloon from whence the cry had proceeded. Every one was naturally anxious to ascertain what could have caused it. The boys were among the curious persons who joined the throng.