And the
advancing darkness did not tend towards cheerfulness. In her new
track, the _Kansas_ had turned her back on the murky light which
penetrated the storm-clouds towards the west. Unhinged by the external
gloom and the prevalent uncertainty, and finding that no one cared to
dispute with her, Isobel felt that a scream or two would be a relief.
For once, pride was helpful--it saved her from hysteria.
The curious sense of waiting, they knew not for what, which dulled the
thoughts and stilled the tongues of the small company at the table,
soon communicated itself to the stewards. The men stood in little
knots, exchanging few words, and those mostly meaningless; but the
chief steward, whose trained ear caught the regular beat of the
donkey-engine, woke them up with a series of sharp orders.
"Switch on the lights," he said loudly. "Clear the table and hurry up
with the coffee. Get a move on those fellows, Gomez. Have you never
before been in a ship when the screw stopped?"
The Gomez thus appealed to was the Englishman's second-in-command; he
acted as interpreter when anything out of the common was required.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53