Mr. Harvey, Watkins, and I can handle the yacht, so
you can take the boat if you like."
The men replied that they would stick to the yacht wherever Mr.
Virtue chose to take her, and muttered something about the ladies,
for the pleasant faces of Mrs. Grantham and Miss Graham had, during
the fortnight they had been on board, won the men's hearts.
"Very well, lads, I am glad to find you will stick by me; if we
pull safely through it I will give each of you three months' wages.
Now set to work with a will and get the gig out. We will tow her
after us, and take to her if we make a smash of it."
They were now near enough to see the white breakers, in the middle
of which the ship was lying. She was fast breaking up. The jagged
outline showed that the stern had been beaten in. The masts and
funnel were gone, and the waves seemed to make a clean breach over
her, almost hiding her from sight in a white cloud of spray.
"Wood and iron can't stand that much longer," Jack Harvey said;
"another hour and I should say there won't be two planks left
together."
"It is awful, Jack; I would give all I have in the world if I had
not persuaded them to go on board. Keep her off a little more,
Watkins."
The Seabird passed within a cable's length of the breakers at the
northern end of the reef.
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