The order was quickly executed. The mainmast fell to starboard, followed by the mizen-mast, and the late gallant-looking ship floated a dismantled hulk amid the foaming waves. But the sacrifice was in vain; scarcely had the masts gone than the last cable parted, and the gallant ship drifted onwards towards the threatening shore. Still Captain Hartland was not a man to yield while a possibility remained of saving his ship and the lives of those entrusted to him. The corvette carried aft two heavy guns for throwing shells. Some spare hempen cables were got up from below, and made fast to them; when hove overboard they checked her way. Daylight at length came, and revealed her terrific position. High cliffs, and dark, rugged, wild rocks, over which the sea broke in masses of foam, appeared on every side. Pale and anxious the crew stood at their stations. The wind roared, the cold was bitter. A startling terror-inspiring cry was heard. "The last cable has parted!" The three midshipmen shook hands; they believed that they were soon to be separated, never to meet again in this world. On--on, with heavy plunges, amid the foaming waters, the doomed ship hurried to meet her fate. CHAPTER THREE. AMONGST THE GREEKS. Onward drove the sloop of war with the three midshipmen on board to certain destruction. "Heave the guns overboard!" cried Captain Hartland, on the discovery that the last cable had parted. Severe indeed was the pang it caused him to give the order. As the ship rolled, first the starboard, and then the guns on the other side, were cut loose and allowed to run through the ports. With sullen plunges they disappeared in the foaming seas. "There go all our teeth," cried Paddy Adair, who even at that awful moment could not refrain from a joke. Even Murray smiled. "I wish that I were like you, Paddy," said Jack; "I couldn't have said that sort of thing just now." "Well, but I'm sure that I can't help feeling as if every tooth in my mouth had been hauled out with a huge wrench," observed Adair. "There! there goes the last." "We must lighten the ship aft as much as possible, Mr Gale, and make sail on the stump of the foremast, so as to force her up on the beach," observed the captain. "If we can find the beach," he added in a lower voice.