"I leave the ship last, or die with her. Forward, Colley! Do you hear?"
"After you, captain; after you."
"Colley, old fellow, you never disobeyed me before. You won't do it now."
Then a great shudder seemed to thrill through the ship, and she turned on her side, and with a mighty rush the waves seized their prey, and the Galatea went down into the stormy waters.
Jack found himself struggling in the surging waves; but a boat was near him, and a hand seized him and dragged him in.
It was old Colley's hand, and he had in his other arm little Peter, and a whine told that Toby was with his master.
It was a perilous position—the boat was tossed like a feather on those stormy billows; while above the raging of the storm could be heard cries for help from those who were clinging to broken rafts and pieces of the wreck.
"She was cracked like a walnut," Colley said; "and the captain's heart was broken—that's why he said he would die with her."