The water filled her from rail to rail. She shuddered, and then lifted slowly, and as she ran once more before the wind and rolled, she poured out the sea on either side. The main-deck ports were burst outward, the gear floated in inextricable tangles, a four-hundred-gallon tank, lashed under the poop ladders, broke from its lashings and took charge of the deck. In the black darkness and the imminent danger men cried out. Some cried to their mates and were answered, some were not answered. With the mate three other men had gone. And then she cleared herself once more, and the men came together under the break of the poop. Joe asked for Jack Marchmont; but Jack had saved any one from the expense of a tombstone. "And I over-persuaded 'im to ship in her. Oh, she's a bloody ship." Then one man said: "Where's Mr. Gamgee?" Joe ran up to the poop. "Mr. Gamgee! sir!" "He ain't here," said the man at the wheel. "Oh, Joe, what is it?" "'Twas your doin'," cried Joe. "There's two gone, and Jack with 'em, and Mr. Gamgee!" And the man at the wheel fell all ashake. His face was ashy in the feeble glimmer of the binnacle light. "Come and take her, Joe," he implored. "Oh, the swine she is. I'm in a tremble, Joe. She's too much for me." And tragedy heaped itself on tragedy. The steward came on deck, and heard that the mate was gone. He lost his head and ran in to the captain crying; he was ludicrous, horrible, speechless. And Rayner sat up in his bunk, and fell back without knowing what had happened. He never knew, for though the steward shook him feebly, his failing heart had failed, and brandy never brought him to. The steward ran on deck blubbering. "I believe the captain's dead," he sobbed. And the two boldest of the men took off their caps and went into the cabin humbly. A greater than their commander was there. They stood in silence, fiddling with their caps, and stared at the quiet white face upon its pillow. "Oh yes, he's dead," they whispered. They backed out respectfully; they were stunned, and were adrift; they were all masterless men; authority had been removed; they faced the unknown with dread. They saw now that they had rested on others' knowledge. What did they know of the sea after all? They gathered on the poop. "What?" said Joe, who was at the wheel. "Him gone too. And we----" They all understood. They were in peculiar isolation, in danger. And what would be said if they saved themselves and the ship? "'Twill look as if we'd mutinied," said Joe. But he had a touch of natural authority in him. "As soon as it gets light we'll write out a true account of it and sign it, all of us. And we'll make for the nearest port."