“Lower away the gig!” shouted Martin, going up to where the boat was hanging; “and if you cowards rush her, I’ll shoot freely.”
Cowed by his revolver, which was covering them with its six deadly cartridges, the men did as they were ordered, and, placing the boat in charge of the mate, the captain made them all get in in orderly fashion.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Martin to the three who stood near him, “get in quick—the yacht will soon be under water.”
“But yourself?”
“It’s my duty to stick to the ship,” said the brave old man; “if she goes down, I go down—if she doesn’t, there will be hope of safety; but I will be the last to leave her.”
“There’s room in the boat,” called the mate; “quick, for your lives.”
Caliphronas needed no urging, but sprang into the boat, then, either from treachery or terror, cut the rope which held her to the yacht with a knife he had in his hand. There was a shout of execration from the crew, but the act was irremediable, and the gig plunged away into the darkness; the last seen by the four survivors on deck being Caliphronas, furiously fighting with two of the men, who were trying to hurl him overboard.
The yacht was now nearly under water, and on her deck stood Martin, Maurice, Crispin, and Gurt.
“Only one hope,” cried Martin, furiously shaking his fist at the retreating boat; “climb up the mast!”
They flew to the weather rigging, and Maurice, Crispin, and Gurt managed to climb up, but just as Martin was springing for the rope, a heavy sea swept the yacht fore and aft, and he was carried overboard. They heard his despairing cry as he went down into the trough of the sea, but there was no time to say anything, for with one final plunge the yacht went down, and the three human beings scrambled up the rigging as fast as they could, followed by the water, which seemed loath to surrender its prey. Fortunately The Eunice had sunk near the shore, so, when she finally settled down, about thirty feet of the remaining mast was sticking up out of the water, and to this clung the three survivors in desperate anxiety, expecting every moment to be shaken off into the depths below. At any moment the mast might break off, or a roll of the submerged yacht send it into the water; so, with this terrible dread in their hearts, these three human beings clung madly to their only refuge.