"Nay, nay," again said the doctor, laughing. "You owe it, to my thinking, to a fair young lady who looked after you so carefully when we put you on shore at Waterford--for you were in a bad way then, let me tell you, though I did not say so at the time." "He has repaid the debt, doctor, for I understand that the same young lady was in the house attacked by the rebels, and that they were on the point of entering it and murdering all the inmates, when he drove them to the right-about," said Mr Tarwig. In another tent the master and purser, with the midshipmen, were engaged in amusing themselves in a more uproarious fashion. Many a merry stave and sentimental ditty was sung, and not a few yarns were spun, anecdotes told, and jokes cut, albeit not of the newest. The remainder of the shipwrecked men having been pretty well worked during the day, soon turned in, and in spite of the storm raging over their heads went fast asleep; the only people awake being the sentries, who, wrapped in their greatcoats, their firelocks sheltered under them, stood with their backs to the wind. Thus the night passed away. With the morning light the rain ceased, and as Norman, who was the first among the officers on foot, looked in the direction of the spot where the ship had been, she was nowhere to be seen, but here and there amid the foam-covered reefs fragments of the wreck could be discerned, tossed about by the tumbling seas. He had reason to be thankful that such had not been her fate while the crew were still on board. He was soon joined by Mr Tarwig. He pointed in the direction of the wreck. "Our chance of building a craft to carry us away is gone," observed the first lieutenant, with a sigh. "Well, we must bear our lot patiently, and maybe some friendly craft may heave in sight. And if a friend does not come, why, perhaps an enemy will; and if so, we must capture her, and change places with her crew." "Little chance of that, I fear," said Norman, who, eager as he was to get off, had from the first not been very sanguine of doing so. After the crew had been piped up, and Mr Tarwig had mustered them and gone through the usual duties performed by a first lieutenant--although, as he observed with one of his comical looks to Norman, he need not get the decks washed, the rain having done that already--they re-entered their tent, to which their servants brought fresh water for their morning ablutions. Fires were lighted, though the wood did not burn at first very briskly, and the cooks busied themselves in preparing for breakfast. The commander on going out of his tent took one glance seaward. "I feared it would be so," he said, turning away his head. "Now, Mr Tarwig, we'll get our fort under way." "It would be a hard matter to do that, sir," answered the first lieutenant, screwing up his mouth, with a twinkle in his eye, "seeing it is not built yet."