“I know I can!” replied Louis very confidently.

“I do not object, if Mr. Scott is willing.”

“I am very willing, for Mr. Belgrave’s muscle is as hard as a flint.”

“Very well.  Hurry up!” added the captain.

Four other men were sent aft to assist in the preparations for putting the second cutter into the water; and in as short a time as Mr. Gaskette, who usually went in that boat on important occasions, would have required to do it, the cutter was ready to be dropped into the water when the order was given.

The captain and the second officer continued to watch the party on the wreck, expecting every moment to see some of them swept into the savage waves that beat against their frail support.  The ship went at full speed on her course; for the commander would not waste an instant while the lives of so many human beings depended upon his action.

“Can you make out what they are clinging to, Mr. Gaskette?” asked the commander of the only person besides the two quartermasters who remained with him in the pilot-house.

“Yes, sir; I am just getting an idea in regard to it, though the thing is awash so that I can hardly make it out,” replied the second officer.  “I think it is the bottom of a rather small vessel, upside down; for I see something like a keel.  The party have two ropes stretched the whole length of the bottom, to which they are clinging.”

“You are right; that is plainly the bottom of a vessel, and I wonder that the craft has not gone down by this time.  How she happens to be in that situation, and why she has not sunk, are matters yet to be explained.  Go aft, if you please, and see that both cutters are ready to be lowered into the water, Mr. Gaskette.  It is not prudent to go much nearer to the wreck, for the gale may drift us upon it.”

The second officer left the pilot-house, and found the crews all seated in their boats, with everything in readiness to obey the order to lower away; and he reported the fact to his superior.

“Starboard the helm, Bangs, and steer small!” said Captain Ringgold as soon as the officer returned with the information he had obtained.

To “steer small” is to move the rudder very gradually; for if the course were suddenly changed a quarter of the circumference of the compass in such a sea as was then raging, it would be liable to make the steamer engage in some disagreeable, if not dangerous, antics.

“Steady!” added the captain when the steamer was headed a point south of west.

This position brought the starboard side of the ship on the lee; that is, this part of the ship was sheltered from the fury of the wind and the waves, and it was the proper situation in which to lower a boat into the water; for on the windward side these two powerful forces would be likely to stave the cutter against the side of the steamer.

After the commander had struck the gong to stop her, he gave the order to the second officer to lower the first cutter; and he left the pilot-house for this purpose.  Mr. Boulong was an exceptionally skilful officer in the handling of a boat in a heavy sea.  Watching for the favorable moment, he gave the order to the cockswain and bowman to lower away, with the aid of the oarsmen near them.