"We can try—can't we?"
"Where is Mr. Lincoln?"
"I don't know. I have not heard a sound but the noise of the sea since the vessel struck. I suppose he and the rest of the men were washed overboard."
"How horrible!"
"I don't know. They may have left in one of the boats."
"I haven't any courage, Noddy. My poor father is gone, and I don't feel as though it made any difference what became of me."
"Don't talk so, Mollie. Save yourself for my sake, if you don't for your own."
"What can we do?" asked she, blankly, for the situation seemed utterly hopeless.
"I don't know; I will see," replied Noddy, as he crawled through the aperture, and reached the deck.
A huge wave struck him as he rose upon his feet, and bore him down to the lee side of the vessel; but he grasped the shrouds, and saved himself from being hurled into the abyss of waters that boiled in the fury of the storm on both sides of the stranded schooner. He ran up the shrouds a short distance, and tried to penetrate the gloom of the night. He could see nothing but the white froth on the waves, which beat on all sides. There was no land to be seen ahead, as he had expected, and it was evident that the Roebuck had struck on a shoal, at some distance from any shore.