I cannot say that I had much hope that my prayer would be answered--indeed I think I had none,--still, the mere act of crying in my distress to the Almighty afforded me a little relief, and it was with a good deal of energy that I threw myself into the first boat that was lowered, and pulled at the oar as if my own life depended on it.
A lantern had been fastened to the end of an oar and set up in the boat, and by its faint light I could see that the men looked very grave.

Tom Lokins was steering, and I sat near him, pulling the aft oar.
"Do you think we've any chance, Tom ?" said I.
A shake of the head was his only reply.
"It must have been here away," said the mate, who stood up in the bow with a coil of rope at his feet, and a boat-hook in his hand.

"Hold on, lads, did anyone hear a cry ?" No one answered.

We all ceased pulling, and listened intently; but the noise of the waves and the whistling of the winds were all the sounds we heard.
"What's that floating on the water ?" said one of the men, suddenly.
"Where away ?" cried everyone eagerly.
"Right off the lee-bow--there, don't you see it ?" At that moment a faint cry came floating over the black water, and died away in the breeze.
The single word "Hurrah!" burst from our throats with all the power of our lungs, and we bent to our oars till we wellnigh tore the rollicks out of the boat.
"Hold hard! stern all!" roared the mate, as we went flying down to leeward, and almost ran over the hen-coop, to which a human form was seen to be clinging with the tenacity of a drowning man.

We had swept down so quickly, that we shot past it.