As he had expected, the schooner was gone.

The storm had broken her up, and he found many of her timbers scattered along the beach, where they had been brought in by the waves.

He felt genuine sadness at the ship's destruction and disappearance.

It was like losing a living friend.
Fortunately, the tarpaulin and heavy sails with which he had covered his heap of stores high up the beach, weighting them down afterward with huge stones, had held.

Some water had entered at the edges, but, as the goods were of a kind that could not be damaged much, little harm was done.