The Wreck of the Steam Yacht Zoe.—Page [85].
“I wish I could do it!” he shouted, as if thinking the sufferers could hear him. “I haven’t got a boat, an’ even if I had, she couldn’t be launched in this surf!”
He took no heed of time.
He only knew that the yacht was coming broadside on very rapidly; but whether five minutes or five hours had elapsed from the moment he first saw her, it would have been impossible to say.
When she was not more than a hundred yards from the shore the waves swung her around until he could see in gilt letters on her stern the name Zoe.
Then she went down once more into the chasm of waters, and on rising again, it was apparent that the end had come.
Up, up, up until it seemed she was directly above his head did the wounded craft rise, and then, as if impelled by some terrible force from seaward, she shot landward, coming so near where Ned stood that he involuntarily leaped aside, fearing the hull might crush him.
There was no very heavy crash as she struck, or if there was Ned failed to hear it.
It seemed to him as if the waves had left her gently on the sand and then ran back to gather fresh impetus before pounding her to pieces.