them out. He turned to look for the ship, but could see no traces
of her, and since it was inconceivable that the Nebraska could
have sunk so quietly, her disappearance confirmed his fears. More
than once he fancied he heard an answer to his cries for help--
the rattle of rowlocks or the splash of oars--but his ears proved
unreliable.

After a time the girl began to moan with pain and terror, but as
numbness gradually robbed her of sensation she became quiet. A
little later her grip upon his clothing relaxed and he saw that
she was collapsing. He drew her to him and held her so that her
face lay upturned and her hair floated about his shoulders. In
this position she could not drown, at least while his strength
lasted. But he was rapidly losing control of himself; his teeth
were clicking loosely, his muscles shook and twitched It required
a great effort to shout, and he thought that his voice did not
carry so far as at first. Therefore he fell silent, paddling with
his free arm and kicking, to keep his blood stirring.

Several times he gave up and floated quietly, but courage was
ingrained in him; deep down beneath his consciousness was a
vitality, an inherited stubborn resistance to death, of which he
knew nothing. It was that unidentified quality of mind which
supports one man through a great sickness or a long period of
privation, while another of more robust physique succumbs. It was
the same quality which brings one man out from desert wastes, or
the white silence of the polar ice, while the bodies of his
fellows remain to mark the trail. This innate power of supreme
resistance is found in chosen individuals throughout the animal
kingdom, and it was due to it alone that Murray O'Neil continued