“Mr. Boulong, you will take charge of the first cutter, and Mr. Gaskette of the second,” continued the captain. “It is low tide, but you must feel your way over the reef. You will find water enough for the boats, and get on the lee side of the wreck. How to get the people into the boats I must leave to your own good judgment, and I will not embarrass you with orders which may not be practicable.” “In which boat shall I go, Captain Ringgold?” asked the owner earnestly, as the boatswain swung out the davits of the first cutter. “I can’t advise you to go in either, Mr. Belgrave,” replied the commander seriously. “I must go, sir!” protested Louis. “Shall I keep away from my mother when she is in peril of her life? I could not do it, captain!” “I shall send two officers and eight men in the boats, and that will be abundantly sufficient to save every one on the wreck,” argued the captain. “You are not a sailor, and this is a dangerous enterprise, as you can see for yourself.” “Is it any more dangerous for me than it is for my mother?” “But it is needless for you to expose yourself, and you can do no good by going in the boat.” “Where my mother is I must be, Captain Ringgold, and I shall go to her if I have to swim to the wreck,” Louis insisted with all the earnestness of his nature. “This is your steamer, and these are your boats; and if you are determined to go, I shall say nothing more,” added the commander, when he saw that it was useless to argue the point. “If it were not my mother in question I would obey you like a child.” “I do not command you, Mr. Belgrave,” said the captain with a smile. “Mr. Boulong, Mr. Belgrave will go in the first cutter with you, and I need hardly tell you to look out for his safety as well as his mother’s.” It was not boys’ play to lower the boats into the water, and the second cutter was nearly stove against the side of the ship. Under the immediate direction of the captain the first cutter, with Louis, the first officer and four men, was safely lowered into the water, and shoved off, clear of the side. The boat was like a feather on the bounding billows, and the owner found it necessary to hold on with both hands in the stern sheets, where Mr. Boulong steered the cutter. The second cutter had more difficulty in getting off, but succeeded in the end, when Mr. Boulong was half-way to the wreck. The boat went over the shoal water, and the bowman caught the rope that was thrown from the Maud. Louis saw that his mother was on her knees in prayer. CHAPTER XXXV THE RETURN TO THE GUARDIAN-MOTHER