How depressed I felt when I realised this awful fact no one can imagine.

Nevertheless, things were not altogether hopeless, for next morning I felt a sudden crack in my left ear, and immediately afterwards I heard once more the dull roar of the surf, the whistling of the wind, and the barking of my affectionate dog.

My right ear, however, was permanently injured, and to this day I am decidedly deaf in that organ.

I was just beginning to think that we had passed over the most serious part of the danger, when to my utter despair I again heard that hideous grating sound, and knew she had struck upon another reef.

She stuck there for a time, but was again forced on, and presently floated in deep water.