"What did he say?" asked Miss Keene, "What are 'Breakers ahead'?"
Hurlstone did not reply.
"Where away?" asked a second voice.
The murmur still continuing, Captain Bunker's hoarse voice pierced the
gloom,--"Silence fore and aft!"
The first voice repeated faintly,--
"On the larboard bow."
There was another silence. Again the voice repeated, as if
mechanically,--
"Breakers!"
"Where away?"
"On the starboard beam."
"We are in some passage or channel," said Hurlstone quietly.
The young girl glanced round her and saw for the first time that, in
one of those inexplicable movements she had not understood, the other
passengers had been withdrawn into a limited space of the deck, as if
through some authoritative orders, while she and her companion had been
evidently overlooked. A couple of sailors, who had suddenly taken their
positions by the quarter-boats, strengthened the accidental separation.
"Is there some one taking care of you?" he asked, half hesitatingly;
"Mr. Brace--Perkins--or"--
"No," she replied quickly. "Why?"
"Well, we are very near the boat in an emergency, and you might allow me
to stay here and see you safe in it."
"But the other ladies? Mrs. Markham, and"--
"They'll take their turn after YOU," he said grimly, picking up a wrap
from the railing and throwing it over her shoulders.
"But--I don't understand!" she stammered, more embarrassed by the
situation than by any impending peril.
"There is very little danger, I think," he added impatiently. "There is
scarcely any sea; the ship has very little way on; and these breakers
are not over rocks. Listen."
She tried to listen. At first she heard nothing but the occasional low
voice of command near the wheel. Then she became conscious of a gentle,
soothing murmur through the fog to the right. She had heard such a
murmuring accompaniment to her girlish dreams at Newport on a still
summer night. There was nothing to frighten her, but it increased her
embarrassment.
"And you?" she said awkwardly, raising her soft eyes.
"Oh, if you are all going off in the boats, by Jove, I think I'll stick
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