My heart at first seemed to leap into my mouth and almost choke me.

Then a terrible fear, which I cannot describe, shot through me, when I thought it might be my comrade Fred Borders.

But these thoughts and feelings passed like lightning--in a far shorter time than it takes to write them down.

The shriek was still ringing in my ears when the captain roared-- "Down your helm! stand by to lower away the boats." At the same moment he seized a light hen-coop and tossed it overboard, and the mate did the same with an oar in the twinkling of an eye.
Almost without knowing what I did, or why I did it, I seized a great mass of oakum and rubbish that lay on the deck saturated with oil, I thrust it into the embers of the fire in the try-works, and hurled it blazing into the sea.
[Illustration: "HURLED IT BLAZING INTO THE SEA"] The ship's head was thrown into the wind, and we were brought to as quickly as possible.

A gleam of hope arose within me on observing that the mass I had thrown overboard continued still to burn; but when I saw how quickly it went astern, notwithstanding our vigorous efforts to stop the ship, my heart began to sink, and when, a few moments after, the light suddenly disappeared, despair seized upon me, and I gave my friend up for lost.
At that moment, strange to say, thoughts of my mother came into my mind, I remembered her words, "Call upon the Lord, my dear boy, when you are in trouble." Although I had given but little heed to prayer, or to my Maker, up to that time, I did pray, then and there, most earnestly that my messmate might be saved.