storm was severe, but not as savage as it might have been, or as the
steamer had encountered on the Atlantic when she saved the sailing-yacht
Blanche from foundering. The ship had been kept on her course for Bombay,
though, as she had the gale on the beam, she was condemned to wallow in the
trough of the sea; and stiff and able as she was, she rolled heavily, as
any vessel would have done under the same conditions.

The change of course gave her the wind very nearly over the stern, and she
pitched instead of rolling, sometimes lifting her propeller almost out of
the water, which made it whirl like a top, and then burying it deep in the
waves, causing it to moan and groan and shake the whole after part of the
ship, rousing all the party in the cabin from their slumbers. The ship had
hardly changed her course before Louis came on deck, and was soon followed
by Felix McGavonty.

"What's the row, Mr. Scott?" asked the former.

"Are ye's thryin' to shake the screw out of her?" inquired the Milesian,
who could talk as good English as his crony, the owner, but who
occasionally made use of the brogue to prevent him from forgetting his
mother tongue, as he put it, though he was born in the United States.
"Don't ye's do it; for sure, you will want it 'fore we get to Bombay."

"Don't you see those men standing upon something, or clinging to whatever
floats them? They are having a close call; but I hope we shall be able to
save them," replied the third officer.

The captain had gone to the pilot-house, from the windows of which the
wreck could be seen very plainly, as its distance from the ship was rapidly
reduced. By this time the entire crew had rushed to the deck, and were