“That will do!” I shouted.  “Now then, my lad, catch hold of me with one hand, and the line with the other.”

The fellow took a firm grip of my monkey-jacket, and I made for the door.  The water washed up to my knees, but I soon inserted my fingers in the crevice of the door and thrust it open.

The house was a single compartment, though I had expected to find it divided into two.  In the centre was a table that traveled on stanchions from the roof to the deck, On either side were a couple of bunks.  The girl stood near the door.  In a bunk to the left of the door lay an old man with white hair.  Prostrate on his back, on the deck, with his arms stretched against his ears, was the corpse of a man, well dressed; and in a bunk on the right sat a sailor, who, when he saw me, yelled out and snapped his fingers, making horrible grimaces.

Such, in brief, was the coup d’oeil of that weird interior as it met my eyes.

I seized the girl by the arm.

“You first,” said I.  “Come; there is no time to be lost.”

But she shrunk back, pressing against the door with her hand to prevent me from pulling her, crying in a husky voice, and looking at the old man with the white hair, “My father first! my father first!”

“You shall all be saved, but you must obey me.  Quickly now!” I exclaimed passionately; for a heavy sea at that moment flooded the ship, and a rush of water swamped the house through the open door and washed the corpse on the deck up into a corner.

Grasping her firmly, I lifted her off her feet, and went staggering to the life-rope, slinging her light body over my shoulder as I went.  Assisted by my man, I gained the bow of the wreck, and hailing the boat, ordered it alongside.

“One of you,” cried I, “stand ready to receive this lady when I give the signal.”

I then told the man who was with me to jump into the forechains, which he instantly did.  The wreck lurched heavily to port.  “Stand by, my lads!” I shouted.  Over she came again, with the water swooping along the maindeck:  The boat rose high, and the forechains were submerged to the height of the man’s knees.  “Now!” I called, and lifted the girl over.  She was seized by the man in the chains, and pushed toward the boat; the fellow standing in the bow of the boat caught her, and at the same moment down sunk the boat, and the wreck rolled wearily over.  But the girl was safe.

“Hurrah, my lad!” I sung out.  “Up with you,—­there are others remaining;” and I went sprawling along the line to the deck-house, there to encounter another rush of water, which washed as high as my thighs, and fetched me such a thump in the stomach that I thought I must have died of suffocation.

I was glad to find that the old man had got out of his bunk, and was standing at the door.

“Is my poor girl safe, sir?” he exclaimed, with the same huskiness of voice that had grated so unpleasantly in the girl’s tone.