"Yes—one of the crew."
"How can I thank you!" she exclaimed. "My father is rich. He will reward you."
He laughed harshly.
"Money isn't much good here. You don't realize where we are. Every one's gone but we—all are drowned. We're as good as dead. We're a thousand miles from the mainland—with no means of getting away and no food. There's little chance of being sighted by a passing ship, for the storm had blown us out of the regular steamer track." Brutally, he added: "You might as well understand the situation. Death by starvation stares us in the face."
Grace interrupted him by an outburst of hysterical weeping. Weakened physically by exertion and exposure, her nerves overwrought by terror and suspense, little wonder that at last she gave way. She sobbed like a child, a piteous passion of tears that would have melted a heart of stone. She didn't care for herself. She was ready to die. But she was sorry for Daddy and her poor mother. They would grieve for her and it would break their hearts. She shuddered as she thought of the shocking fate which had befallen her recent companions on the ship.
"Perhaps some of them got away in the boats," she gasped between her tears.
"Maybe they did," he replied, with an indifferent shrug of his shoulders. With a gesture of impatience he added curtly: "It's no use crying. That won't do any good. What you need most is to get out of those wet clothes. You're soaked to the skin."
"I have no others to put on," ruefully she replied, making an effort to sit up and squeezing the water out of her skirt. She thought with dismay of all her precious belongings forever lost at the bottom of the sea. Fortunately, her pearls were saved. The necklace was still round her throat.
"Look!" she said, holding the necklace up so he could see it. "At least we have these. They are worth $40,000."
He laughed derisively.