She was surely slowing now; they must be reversing engines and trying to stop her.

They would put out a boat.

But what hope, what chance of rescue by night, in such a wild waste of waves as that?
And Muriel Ellis was clinging to him for dear life all the while, with the despairing clutch of a half-drowned woman! The people on the Australasian, for their part, knew better what had occurred.

There was bustle and confusion enough on deck and on the captain's bridge, to be sure: "Man overboard!"-- three sharp rings at the engine bell:--"Stop her short!--reverse engines!--lower the gig!--look sharp, there, all of you!" Passengers hurried up breathless at the first alarm to know what was the matter.

Sailors loosened and lowered the boat from the davits with extraordinary quickness.