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The name, though peculiar, Larry thought, was not dissimilar to scores of others, for the steamer had on board a cosmopolitan lot of passengers. No one knew how Retto had been lost. As Larry was on his way to the telegraph office a sudden thought came to him. "That's it!" he exclaimed. "The man who came ashore on the life-raft is this missing Mah Retto.
He was about to propose to the fisherman that they go, when Bailey, who had gone down to the water's edge, uttered a cry. "What is it?" called the reporter, hastening to the side of the old man. "Looks like a life-raft from the steamer!" exclaimed Bailey. "She must have broken up. Maybe there's some one on this. Give me a hand.
"But you don't know me," she put in quickly. I saw how near I had come to self-betrayal and tried to fend my little life-raft off the rocks. "You will say that we have met only once before to-night, and then only casually. Will you permit a comparative stranger to say that that was enough? Your soul looks out through your eyes, Miss Everton, and it is an exceedingly honest soul.
And there ought to be such reunions between families whose sons and daughter have been cast away together, on a life-raft, in the middle of the ocean." "That's so," said Mrs. Colbert, warmly. "I thought they were saved on a life-raft," said old Colbert, dryly. "And I didn't know it was in the middle of the ocean." "Well, fix that as you please," said Uncle Chipperton.
Then he went up again to the top deck and located a life-raft made the rounds of the boat-deck and located the life-boats. It was time now to study the storm. The snow was not so thick, but the sea was making and the wind colder and stronger. A gale from the northwest it would be when they were out in the open bay; and, besides the wind getting stronger the sea would be higher.
But was he not lost? I remember we could not find him when we had all been landed from the wreck." "He came ashore first of all," replied Larry. "A fisherman and I helped save him from a life-raft," and he told the circumstances. "Queer," murmured the captain. "I have often thought of that man. He seemed to have some mystery about him." Larry gave a brief account of the case he was working on.
The state of feeling in governmental circles, and the evidences of alarm and distrust which were becoming apparent in Congress and among the people, exerted an important influence in favour of the Syndicate. The Government caught at its proposition, not as if it were a straw, but as if it were a life-raft.
The Merrimac sank but did not completely block up the channel. The enemy's fire was so incessant and sweeping that it was impossible for the crew to reach the life-raft which they had in tow; so Hobson and his men lay flat on deck and waited for the ship to sink. It was a terrible waiting while every great gun and Mauser rifle was pouring its deadly fire upon the ship. At last the end came.
"There are life-belts here; see, hung to the front of the cabin. Was that what you meant?" "Yes, and no." He snatched one from the hook, and hastily strapped it about her. "These may help, but we shall need more. Was there no life-raft? My God! there must surely be something of that kind." "Yes, there is; I remember now. It is forward there, near the engine-room hatch.
"At the same time there was some provision made for escape in case any of them survived the blowing up of their ship. They carried one small dingy along, and an old life-raft was left on board. A steam-launch from the New York was to follow them close in under the batteries, and lie there so long as there was a chance of picking any of them up, or until driven off.
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