Part 8 (1/2)
Jukes, after a bewildered h; and as soon as his eyes took in the coine-roo her stern heavily in the water, sent hi head down upon Mr Rout
The chief's ar as if worked by a spring, went out to meet hi-tubes At the saot to hurry up, whatever it is”
Jukes yelled ”Are you there, sir?” and listened Nothing Suddenly the roar of the wind fell straight into his ear, but presently a s hurricane quietly
”You, Jukes?--Well?”
Jukes was ready to talk: it was only tih to account for everything He could perfectly i 'tween-deck, lying sick and scared between the rows of chests Then one of these chests--or perhaps several at once--breaking loose in a roll, knocking out others, sides splitting, lids flying open, and all these clu up in a body to save their property Afterwards every fling of the shi+p would hurl that tra mob here and there, fro, rolling dollars A struggle once started, they would be unable to stop the could stop them now except main force It was a disaster He had seen it, and that was all he could say Sohting
He sent up his words, tripping over each other, crowding the narrow tube They htened co alone up there with a storm And Jukes wanted to be disreat need of the shi+p
V
He waited Before his eyes the engines turned with slow labour, that in thewould stop dead at Mr Rout's shout, ”Look out, Beale!” They paused in an intelligent immobility, stilled in mid-stroke, a heavy crank arrested on the cant, as if conscious of danger and the passage of time Then, with a ”Now, then!”
froh clenched teeth, they would accoin another
There was the prudent sagacity of wisdoth in theirof a distracted shi+p over the fury of the waves and into the very eye of the wind At times Mr Rout's chin would sink on his breast, and he watched theht
The voice that kept the hurricane out of Jukes' ear began: ”Take the hands with you,” and left off unexpectedly
”What could I do with the exploded suddenly The three pairs of eyes flew up to the telegraph dial to see the hand jump from FULL to STOP, as if snatched by a devil And then these three ineroom had the intie shrinking, as if she had gathered herself for a desperate leap
”Stop her!” bellowed Mr Rout
nobody--not even Captain MacWhirr, who alone on deck had caught sight of a white line of foaht that he couldn't believe his eyes--nobody was to know the steepness of that sea and the awful depth of the hollow the hurricane had scooped out behind the running wall of water
It raced tothe loins, the Nan-Shan lifted her bows and leaped The flaine-roo tuh the shi+p had darted under the foot of a cataract
Down there they looked at each other, stunned
”Swept from end to end, by God!” bawled Jukes
She dipped into the hollow straight down, as if going over the edge of the world The engine-rooly, like the inside of a tower nodding in an earthquake An awful racket, of iron things falling, ca enough for Beale to drop on his hands and knees and begin to crawl as if he ine-rooid, cavernous, with the lower jaw dropping
Jukes had shut his eyes, and his face in a entle, like the face of a blind , as if she had to lift a mountain with her bows
Mr Rout shut his mouth; Jukes blinked; and little Beale stood up hastily
”Another one like this, and that's the last of her,” cried the chief