"What is that you say? Come aft, for this wind will let nobody hear anything but its own howl."
"I discovered aloft what appeared to be a vessel to windward, scudding under bare poles," repeated Mark.
"Ha, say you? Then we are like to have company in the gale."
As he attempted to ascend to the weatherside to look for the stranger, a fresh gust of the tornado burst upon the vessel and threw her upon her beam's end, the sea breaking over her bulwarks from stem to stern with the force and volume of a cataract.
"My niece, my niece!" cried the Earl of Bellamont, suddenly; "save her—oh, God! she is lost!"
The first shock of the tempest had thrown the nobleman and Grace to the deck; but he had contrived to shelter her in his cloak, under the lee of the companion-way, during its continuance, and, save the apprehension attendant on the danger she was in, she had suffered comparatively little. Her attention had been drawn, in the mean while, to the bold enterprise of the young sailor. She would have shrieked as he volunteered, but her voice failed her. She had watched his ascent and the progress of his perilous duty with trembling and with prayer; and, when he descended to the deck, she released her hold upon her uncle, and clasped her hands together in gratitude for his preservation. It was at this moment the vessel was thrown upon her beam's end, when, caught up by a wave, she was borne far from the reach of the earl, whose cries now drew all eyes towards him.
"My niece! Grace! Where is she?" he cried, in tones of despair.
"Here, uncle!" she faintly answered from the sea.
Guided by her voice, they discerned her at some distance from the vessel, her body immersed in the water, clinging by one hand to a stay which lay level with it. Every heave of the sea lifted her nearly out of the water to let her descend again far beneath its surface. Yet she held firmly to the stay with that tenacity which is taught by the love of life.
The earl no sooner beheld her than he was about to jump overboard to her rescue, when Mark, with a rope fastened around his waist, run along the level bulwarks and arrested him before he could take the leap.