So far as danger to life was concerned there was none at present, and the one menace of the future lay in being blown across the Sound and going to pieces on the rocky coast of Connecticut. I was something of a fair-weather yachtsman and knew the danger of a lee shore; but whether my wit would be sufficient to offset the predicament we were in I was by no means sure. For a rescue I trusted more to being picked up by some passing craft than to my own efforts. But what a situation for the lady!
How to enlighten her as to our double disaster was troubling me not a little as I entered the cabin, but I had barely cleared the steps when we were beset by a volley of hail that thundered on the cabin-house and rivaled the uproar of the tornado itself. Great icy lumps larger than marbles drove through the broken skylight and bounded through the open door. The hail was followed by another downpour of rain accompanied by vivid lightning and bellowing thunder. Between the flashes the darkness was that of midnight.
Knowing the terror of my companion I attempted to speak to her, but my voice was lost in the turmoil. Striking a match I lighted the small lamp hanging against the bulkhead and found the girl had recovered from her faint and was sitting on the locker with her face buried in her hands. At that moment the sky lightened a trifle and the thunder rolled more at a distance. Shaken as I was, I little wondered at the convulsive shudders that swept over her slight frame; had I been alone I might have succumbed to panic. Presently she looked up at me; her face was like chalk, but I was thankful to see that she had not lost control of herself.
“Oh, wasn’t it awful!” she exclaimed, and was about to rise when she caught sight of my streaming clothing. “Why did you go out? What have you been doing? Have you seen Maxwell?”
“Maxwell? No, but I have seen enough else,” I returned, determined to hide nothing.
“What do you mean? What has happened?”
“I mean that we have met with disaster. We are adrift.”
“Adrift!” Her eyes widened with sudden terror.
“We have been torn from our moorings,” I answered, with an attempt at ease that I might not increase her panic. “But there is no present danger.”
“I—I do not understand,” she said weakly.