The ship trembled violently, and then became strangely still.
The least experienced traveler on board knew that the engines had
stopped. They felt a long lurch to port when the next sea climbed over
the bows; at once the _Kansas_ righted herself and rode on even keel,
while the stress and turmoil of her fight against wind and wave passed
away into a sustained silence.
The half-caste stewards glanced at each other and drew together in
whispering groups, but the chief steward, an Englishman, who had turned
to leave the saloon, changed his mind and uttered a low growl of
command which sent his subordinates' attention, if not their thoughts,
back to their work. In the strained hush, the running along the deck
of men in heavy sea-boots was painfully audible. Water could be heard
pouring through the scuppers. Steam was rushing forth somewhere with
vehement bluster. These sounds only accentuated the extraordinary
truce in the fight of ship against sea. The _Kansas_ was stricken
dumb, if not dead.
"Something has gone wrong," said Elsie in a low voice.
Doctor Christobal nodded carelessly.
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