Dan's mother, a few seats to the right, saw and heard and quickly moved to her side.
The reading went on.

By the time they reached the January and February wrecks the shots were falling thick and fast, and the widows drew breath between their teeth.
"February 14th .-- Schooner "Harry Randolph" dismasted on the way home from Newfoundland; Asa Musie, married, 32, Main Street, City, lost overboard.
"February 23d .-- Schooner "Gilbert Hope"; went astray in dory, Robert Beavon, 29, married, native of Pubnico, Nova Scotia." But his wife was in the hall.

They heard a low cry, as though a little animal had been hit.

It was stifled at once, and a girl staggered out of the hail.

She had been hoping against hope for months, because some who have gone adrift in dories have been miraculously picked up by deep-sea sailing-ships.