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of another terrific sea the
Gafelborg
had disappeared behind them and they were utterly alone on the raging waters of the mighty ocean.

3
Adrift
    How they survived the remaining hours of the night none of them could afterwards have said. Many times they were within an ace of capsizing; often the boat reared up on end so that it seemed to be almost standing on its bow or stern. The weaker members of the party had to be tied down to prevent their being flung out; the stronger worked at the bailers, waging an unceasing battle with the incoming spray which washed ankle deep about the bottom boards, until they were blind and stupid with fatigue. Yet, by its buoyancy the lifeboat continued to ride the waves and miraculously weathered the storm. Dawn found them chilled to the marrow, drenched to the skin, and huddled in grotesque attitudes where they had fallen when too exhausted to carry on the struggle further, but still alive.
    Alone among them, Juhani Luvia saw the coming of the dawn. He had not closed an eye all night. In the long hours of duty, while the hurricane raged, it had hardly occurred to him that things would go so badly they might have to abandon ship. Later, when the crisis came, his every thought was concerned with saving the passengers and crew allotted to his boat from the fresh perils which beset them every moment. It was only when the last of his men had given in that he began to think of the death he had fought off and another, more terrible, form of death which would soon be creeping on him.
    He was not afraid to die, but he would have preferred drowning to the grim end he now foresaw he might have to face, adrift in an open boat, in the near future. He was glad now that he had never married; at least he had no wife and children to worry over.
    Athletics had taken most of his spare time while he was studying to become an engineer, and, since he had been at sea, his affairs with women, apart from one long, drawn-out sentimental attachment to a German girl in Hamburg, who had married theyear before, had been limited to a few short-lived romances in various ports.
    Juhani’s mother would be the only sufferer from his death. His father had owned a prosperous timber business until the collapse of the Swedish match combine had ruined him and subsequent worry had led to his early death. Since then the young engineer had contributed to his mother’s support. She lived now in a pleasant apartment overlooking the river and with a fine view of the old castle at Viipuri, a port near the head of the Gulf of Finland, where Juhani had been born. He was her only son and very devoted to her. It was a bitter thought to him that in addition to mourning his loss the poor old lady would have to move to less comfortable quarters if death robbed her of him.
    The pale greyness of the eastern sky was soon touched with gold: the colour deepened and spread until it looked as though a great bonfire was burning there miles away under the horizon. Sunrise was no unusual sight for a sea-going engineer, but it never failed to remind Luvia of his summer holidays in boyhood spent among Finland’s ten thousand lakes and their hundred thousand wooded islands where short nights give place to daybreaks of stupendous beauty.
    A fresh wind was blowing, but the hurricane was past. Great seas were still running and continued to carry them up and down on the bosom of a long, rolling swell. Luvia could not see any great distance, but as far as he could see no sign of life showed on the grey-green waters. He leant over and undid the knot of the line that was holding Basil Sutherland in place on the seat beside him.
    As the line came loose from round his waist Basil slipped forward and fell with a bump on the bottom boards. His eyelids flickered and he came out of black unconsciousness.
    He felt ghastly. His mouth was dry and evil tasting, his head heavy and throbbing dully, his eyes were aching in a way that told from experience, without the aid of