THE STEAMER
I awoke with a start, and with wavering eyes looked at the saloon clock. I had slept for one hour only, but it appeared to me that I was quite refreshed. My mind was strangely clear, every sense preternaturally alert. I began to wonder what had aroused me. Suddenly the ship shuddered through the very heart of her, and I knew that it was this shuddering, which must have occurred before, that had wakened me.
“Good God! We’re sinking!” a man cried. He was in the next berth to me, and he sat up, staring wildly.
“Rubbish!” I answered.
The electric lights went out, and we were left with the miserable illumination of one little swinging oil-lamp. Immediately the score or so persons in