“Heaven have mercy on them!” ejaculated Mrs Askew. “How many have mothers and sisters, or wives and daughters expecting them at home—poor people, poor people!”
“But perhaps the wind will change, and the ship may be driven along the coast and into the bay, and they may yet be saved!” exclaimed Margery, who was naturally more sanguine than her mother.
“I fear that there is no likelihood of that,” said Mrs Askew. “See! the boat is still a long way off, and she makes but slow progress—while the ship is driven on to destruction with even greater speed than at first.”
That the above remarks may be clearly understood, it should be mentioned that the ship was a considerable way to the west of Stormount Bay, and that she was driving almost directly on the coast, so that the boat, after pulling out some way to sea to get clear of the cape, had to steer almost parallel with the coast to cut off the ship, their courses being almost at right angles to each other. All the time, though they looked occasionally towards the ship, the eyes of either the mother or daughter were scarcely for a moment off the boat—difficult as it was to keep her in view. Often they gasped for breath, and their hearts sank within them, when she was concealed by the foaming waves; and more than once they could with difficulty refrain from crying out with agony of spirit as she remained longer than before hidden from view. Still, there she was; but as yet she had encountered only a portion of the dangers she had to go through; the greatest was in getting alongside the ship, and next to that was the return through the breakers which were dashing on the shore.
The brave men on board might venture on yet greater danger, should the ship strike, in attempting to go close to the wreck. Both Mrs Askew and Margery knew enough of the state of the case to be aware of this, for there was no lee side on which the boat could approach; and yet they knew that if the captain saw the faintest possibility of saving the lives of any of his fellow-creatures, he would make the attempt.
“I can still see the boat, mother—I can still see the boat!” cried Margery, when Mrs Askew, pale and trembling, had resigned the telescope to her daughter, unable longer to discern the boat, and tinder the belief that it had been overwhelmed by the seas. “She floats—she floats; but she is still a long way from the ship!”
“The ship! where is she?” exclaimed Mrs Askew. “I do not see her.”
Both, without the glass, looked out in the direction where the big ship had just before been seen floating.
“Oh! mother, the ship is not there!” cried Margery.
“Gone! gone! is it so?” exclaimed Mrs Askew; “The Lord have mercy on those now struggling out there for their lives amid the raging waves!”