"Of water," answered the sailor.

The chief cried out,--

"What does that mean?"

"It means," replied Galdeazun, "that in half an hour we shall founder."




CHAPTER XVII.

THE LAST RESOURCE.


There was a hole in the keel. A leak had been sprung. When it happened
no one could have said. Was it when they touched the Caskets? Was it off
Ortach? Was it when they were whirled about the shallows west of
Aurigny? It was most probable that they had touched some rock there.
They had struck against some hidden buttress which they had not felt in
the midst of the convulsive fury of the wind which was tossing them. In
tetanus who would feel a prick?

The other sailor, the southern Basque, whose name was Ave Maria, went
down into the hold, too, came on deck again, and said,--

"There are two varas of water in the hold."