* * * * *
Then came the moon, with its mild and deceptive light, to throw the
delusion of its glow on the varying but ever frightful scene.
"See," said Wilder, as the luminary lifted its pale and melancholy orb
out of the bed of the ocean; "we shall have light for our hazardous
launch!"
"Is it at hand?" demanded Mrs. Wyllis, with all the resolution of manner
she could assume in so trying a situation.
"It is--the ship has already brought her scuppers to the water.
Sometimes a vessel will float until saturated with the brine. If ours
sink at all, it will be soon." "If at all! Is there then hope that she
can float?"
"None!" said Wilder, pausing to listen to the hollow and threatening
sounds which issued from the depths of the vessel, as the water broke
through her divisions, in passing from side to side, and which sounded
like the groaning of some heavy monster in the last agony of nature.
"None; she is already losing her level!"
His companions saw the change; but not for the empire of the world,
could either of them have uttered a syllable. Another low, threatening,
rumbling sound was heard, and then the pent air beneath blew up the
forward part of the deck, with an explosion like that of a gun.
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