Part 5 (2/2)
It was a nerve-rackinglo-Saxondom which cannot produce a Caesar when required
”Say,” shouted the Aave us a shower-bath If we could just stand outside and see ourselves, we should look like an illuht note--belief in the shi+p, conteale The crisis passed
”There really cannot be a heavy sea,” said Elsie, cheerfully inaccurate ”Othere should be pitching or rolling, perhaps both, whereas we are actually far more steady than when dinner co,” complained Isobel
”They re up with silent stealth, and then springing”
”I have never before heard a fog-horn sounded so continuously,” said the missionary's wife, a Mrs So for assistance?”
”assistance! What sort of assistance can anybody give us here? Unless the shi+p rights herself very soon we don't knohat may happen”
Isobel seemed to have a premonition of evil, and she paid no heed to the effect her words h the saloon ar of the es--she shi+vered
Mr Somerville drew a book froest that we seek aid from One who is all-powerful?
We are few, and of different religions, but in this hour we can surely worshi+p at a colish his adjective for once
The missionary offered up a short but heartfelt prayer, and, finding that he carried his congregation with hi verse of Hymn No 370, ”For those at Sea”
The stewards, rasped the fact that the _padri_ was asking for help in a situation which they well knew to be desperate They drew near reverently, and even joined in the simple lines:
O hear us e cry to Thee For those in peril on the sea
During the brief silence which followed the singing of the hymn it did, indeed, seeale had somewhat abated It was not so, in reality A steady fall in the barometer foretold even worse weather to coines were absolutely useless, thought it advisable to get steering way on the shi+p by rigging the foresail, double-reefed and trapped The result was quickly perceptible The _Kansas_ ain, but she would travel more rapidly into the unknown
Yet this only afforded another instance of the way men reason when they seek to explain cause fro of that strip of stout canvas was one of the tiht, for it ith gray-faced despair that the captain gave the requisite order when the second engineer reported that his senior was dead, the crown of two furnaces destroyed, and the engines clogged, if not irretrievably da coloo scud ahead There was a faint chance of encountering another steanals Then he would risk all by laying the _Kansas_ broadside on in the effort to take a tow-rope aboard Meanwhile, it was best to bring her under soear, driven by the uninjured donkey-engine, being yet available
In the saloon, Elsie had shi+elded her face in her hands, to hide the tears which the entreaty of the hyht to her eyes So, Miss Maxwell?”
It was the Aed that the sweet voice which unconsciously led the singing of the hymn must be skilled in other
”Sing! Do you think it possible?” she asked
”Yes You can do a brave thing, I guess, and that would be brave”
”I will try,” she said, and she walked to the piano which was screwed athwart the deck in front of the polished any sheath of the steel mainmast It was in her ht operas then in vogue, but the secret influences of the hour were stronger than her studied intent, and, when her fingers touched the keys, they wandered, almost without volition, into the subtle harmonies of Gounod's ”Ave Maria” She played the air first; then, gaining confidence, she sang the words, using a Spanish version which had caught her fancy It was good to see the flashi+ng eyes and iestures of the Chilean stewards when they found that she was singing in their own language These e of the coast, were now in a state of panic; they would have burst the bonds of discipline on the least pretext So, as it chanced, the voice of the English senorita reached theel, and the spell she cast over theerous toil Here, again, was found one of the comparatively trivial incidents which contributed e dra out in the first part of that soul-destroying night must have instantly converted the shi+p into a blood-bespattered Inferno
Excited applause rewarded the song Fired by example, the dapper French Count approached the piano and asked Elsie if she could play Beranger's ”Roi d'Yvetot” She repressed a smile at his choice, but the chance that presented itself of initiating a concert on the spur of the ood to be lost, so M de Poincilit, in a nice light tenor, told how
Il etait un roi d'Yvetot Pen connu dans l'histoire, Se levant tard, se couchant tot, Dorloire
The French melody pleased everybody except ”Mr Wood” The ”Oh, Oh's” and ”Ah, Ah's” of the chorus apparently stirred him to speech He strolled froineer, and said, with a conteer: