midnight
Briefly Mr. Laurance outlined the facts of his escape upon a raft , which was hastily constructed by several of the crew when the boats were beyond their reach . Upon this he had placed Maud , and on the morning after the wreck of the vessel they succeeded in getting into one of the boats which was floating bottom upward , and providentially drifted quite near the raft . For several days they were tossed helplessly from wave to wave , exposed to heavy rains , and on the third evening , poor little Maud who had been unconscious for some hours , died in her father 's arms . At midnight when the moon shone full and bright , he had wrapped the little form in his coat , and consigned her to a final resting-place beneath the blue billows , where her mother had already gone down amid the fury of the gale . He knew from the colour and lettering of the boat , that it was the same in which he had placed his terrified wife , and when it floated to their raft he could not doubt her melancholy fate . A few hours after Maud 's burial , a Danish brig bound for Valparaiso discovered the boat and its signals of distress , and taking on board the four survivors , sailed away on its destined track . Mr. Laurance bad made his way to Rio Janeiro , and subsequently to Havana , but learning from the published accounts that his wife had indeed perished , and that he also was numbered among the lost , he determined not to reveal the fact of his existence to any one .