“Bill,” halloaed the man who was holding on to the foremost tackle, “lower away; we shall be rushed and swamped!”

Bill obeyed with heart and soul, and down sank the boat below the level of the upper decks, just as the mob was getting the mastery.  In five seconds more they were hanging close over the water, and whilst they were in this position a man leapt at the boat from the bulwarks.  He struck on the thwarts, rolled off into the water, and was no more seen.  A lady, the wife of a Colonial Judge, threw her child; Augusta tried to catch it, but missed, and the boy sank and was lost.  In another moment the two sailors had shoved off from the ship’s side.  As they did so, the stern of the Kangaroo lifted right out of the water so that they could see under her rudder-post.  Just then, too, with a yell of terror, Mr. Meeson, in whom the elementary principle of self-preservation at all costs was strongly developed, cast himself from the side and fell with a splash within a few feet of the boat.  Rising to the surface, he clutched hold of the gunwale, and implored to be taken in.

“Knock the old varmint over the knuckles, Bill,” shouted the other man; “he’ll upset us!”

“No; no!” cried Augusta, her woman’s heart moved at seeing her old enemy in such a case.  “There is plenty of room in the boat.”

“Hold on then,” said the man addressed, whose name was Johnnie; “when we get clear we’ll haul you in.”

And, the reader may be sure, Mr. Meeson did hold on pretty tight till, after rowing about fifty yards, the two men halted, and proceeded, not without some risk and trouble—­for there was a considerable sea running—­to hoist Mr. Meeson’s large form over the gunwale of the boat.

Meanwhile, the horrors on board the doomed ship were redoubling, as she slowly settled to her watery grave.  Forward, the steam fog-horn was going unceasingly, bellowing like a thousand furious bulls; while, now and again, a rocket still shot up through the misty morning air.  Round the boats a hideous war was being waged.  Augusta saw a great number of men jump into one of the largest life-boats, which was still hanging to the davits, having evidently got the better of those who were attempting to fill it with the women and children.  The next second they lowered the after tackle, but, by some hitch or misunderstanding, not the foremost one; with the result that the stern of the boat fell while the bow remained fixed, and every soul in it, some forty or fifty people, was shot out into the water.  Another boat was overturned by a sea as it settled on the water.  Another one, full of women and children, got to the water all right, but remained fastened to the ship by the bow tackle.  When, a couple of minutes afterwards, the Kangaroo went down, nobody had a knife at hand wherewith to cut the rope, and the boat was dragged down with her, and all its occupants drowned.  The remaining boats, with the exception of the one