West Wind Drift

d in rapid succession, proving beyond question that the bombs were set to automatically explode at a given time. One of them wrecked the engine-room; anoth

vered four of them, cunningly planted in the most vital parts of the ship. Two were taken from the lower hold, one at each end of the vessel, and two m

hidden, so thorough and so dogged was the search. Confusion, terror, stupefaction and finally panic followed the successive blasts. The decks were strewn with people prostrated by the violent upheavals, and many there were who never got up again. Stunned, dazed, bewilder

bove all this horrid turmoil the mighty roaring and hissing of steam!... And t

go down to the sea in ships. Hoarse commands lifted above the groans and prayers, and strong but shaken figures sprang with mechanical precision to the po

nged the resolute, undaunted heroes who remained behind, the chosen co

lings of flame, rose the stentorian voice of the Capt

There are dying men below

for support. His legs were rigid, his body swayed, but his spirit was as staun

nihilation in the event that a belated bomb projected its hideous force into the nest of high explosives,-while these men fought, the smiling, placid sea was alive with small white craft that bobbed in the gleaming sun

een again. No boat was without its wounded-and its dead; no boat was without its stricken, anxious-eyed survivors who watched and prayed for the salvation of loved ones left behind. With straining eyes they searc

ed, smothering interior of the ship, and hurled themselves, not into the sea, but prone upon the decks! They had con

ed fitfully in the gentle swell. Presently lights appeared on board the Doraine, one here, one there, then others in twos and threes,-some of them stationary, others moving slowly from place to place. The life-boats crept closer, still closer. Then, o

istance from the ship. The most thorough, careful examination of the steamer was in progress. If it was found that she was in no danger of foundering,-a

roaker was heard. Each and every boat contained at least one indiv

ts of the boat into which he had climbed with commendabl

ime like this? Say, you! Yell up there to some of those damned muddled-headed idiots and tell them

d his remark and Mr. Landover at once sai

t you tell him to go to hell and never think of jacking you up for it. No wonder we're in the fix we're in now. If he'd had the

t take back what you said about Captain Trigger," said th

murder me for a lit

used himself from t

and so help me God, I got nothing but the deepest respect for Captain Trigger. He's a von

ated Landover, crouching down

in a minute if it wasn't for the

pon every one of you, my fellow-passengers, to testify to the utter lack of precaution taken by the men in charge of that ship. And what effort ar

ou blamed old fool!

rated banker. "Are we having

kets that whizzed and roared its way up from the deck of the ship, an endless arrow of fire piercing

still and cold as death. No smoke issued from her stacks to cheer the wretched watchers; no foam, no spray leaped from her mighty bow. She was a great, lifeless thing. Waves lapped gently against her sides and fell away only to come

rate-leaned upon the rail and watched the approach of the crowded boats, looked down into pallid, anguished faces with their eager, hungry eyes, eyes that devoured the

argo. From the interior of the vessel came the brisk, incessant clatter of hammers against wood and steel; from the decks broke the loud, commanding voices of men calling out directions

s the shrill, oft-repeated exh

ng a fine, imposing figure, from who

eat, after all! God bless Captain

cified critic, the steward. "You'

n in the breeches and leggings of the American Navy; blackened and bandaged stokers, sailors and landsmen comprised t

ample play, gave up in time their precious cargoes. No one lifted up his voice in rejoicing, for there were dead and injured back in the shadows; there were grief-stricken, anxious men and women

returning to a tomblike hulk, a lonely mass in which echoes would abound, a thing of s

hers charred and mutilated beyond all possibility of identification. Every man in the engine-room at the time of the explosion was now a mangled, unrecognizable thing.

his volunteer helpers. Sailor and merchant, worker and idler, scholar and dolt, steerage and first cabin, wealth and poverty, shared alike in the disposition of quarters and shared alike in attention. There was n

ed for something a schoolboy would laugh at? Mr. Shannon and two of the younger officers were killed by the explosion that wrecked the bridge and chart hous

en of Cruise was when he appeared in the door of his station, an expression of mingled rage and alarm on his fac

et him! For God'

of the fleeing assistant, the report of the revolver, an

ut his misshapen assistant. They now knew with almost absolute certainty the identity of the odd man in that devilish trio, the man whose footsteps Percival had heard, the man who stayed behind

riously injured were under the doctor's care. Some of them would not recover. A hundred or more persons suffered from shock, bruises, cuts and exposure, but only a few of them required or demanded attention. In spite of thei

l was established. There was a remarkable unanimity of self-sacrifice among the passengers. High and low, they fell to in a frenzy of comradeship, and worked side by side in whatsoever capacity they were needed, whether fitte

ck and Nicklestick, Jones and Snipe, and even to the precious Signor Joseppi,

eckage of the after deck, lamented not the cheerless task but the evil fate t

d women who were born to it; the old and the young-all of them, without exception,-rose from the depths of despair and faced th

rk and cold in the gruesome line in the bow of the boat. It was "Soapy" Shay who staggered out of the rack and smoke with the burly, stricken detective in his arms, and it was "Soapy" Shay who wept when the last breath of life cased out through his tortured

shells from the gunners' hoard. Swiftly, methodically, one after the other, they slid down to the black, greedy waters, sank to the grave that is never still yet always silent, to the vast, unexplored wilderness that

smiling, happy sea that licked the sides o