"She's breaking up!"
Rose seized Mason's arm in a frenzy of horror.
"O God! can't somebody help them?"
"They're out of reach!" said Mason solemnly. And then the throng was silent.
"They are building a raft!" shouted a man with a glass, speaking at intervals for the information of all. "One man is tying a rope to planks; ... he is helping the other men; ... he has his little raft nearly ready; ... they are crawling toward him—"
"Oh, see them!" exclaimed Rose. "Oh, the brave men! There! they are gone—the vessel has broken up."
On the wave nothing now lived but a yellow spread of lumber; the glass revealed no living thing.
Mason turned to Rose with a grave and tender look.
"You have seen human beings engulfed like flies—"
"No! no! There they are!" shouted a hundred voices, as if in answer to Mason's thought.