Part 14 (1/2)
”I thought you would like to kno are things up here?”
”Better The barometer has risen an inch in less than two hours
Possibly, nearness to the land has so”
”You surprise ht What is the position? Of course, we must hit the South American continent sooner or later; can you fix an approxi about six knots, I fancy If we are lucky, and avoid any stray rocks, we should see daylight before we reach the coast That is our sole hope The shi+p is in a powerful tidal current, and it is high-water at 530 AM At a rough estimate, Hanover Island is twenty knots distant Now you know all The outcouesswork”
”Why did the furnaces blow up?”
”I was cross-exa Joey on that point when you came in He reserved his opinion My own view is that, by accident or design, some explosive substance found its way into the coal”
”Shem, Ham and japheth! Explosive substance! Do you ?”
”So of the kind That is only a supposition, but when I whispered it to Walker he agreed”
”Walker! Is he the o to Newcastle, don't put it that way I told him to take Miss Maxwell to her cabin Did he do so?”
”Yes I have not seen her since, so I assume that the bromide, plus the wine, was effective Well, I ? I a to eat, or drink?”
”Nothing I shall be ready for a square meal when I am able to coh he was a brave ht such persistent optimism was out of place Nevertheless, he could emulate Courtenay's coolness
”Let me knohen you are ready I am an excellent cook,” he said
Then the captain of the _Kansas_ resulances at the clock, and the compass, and the baro fro a couple of points eastward He helped her, and telephoned instantly to Walker:
”Go forward and try if you canReport to me here”
”Ay, ay, sir,” came the reply, and anon Walker appeared
”It's main thick ahead, sir, but I thinkpassin' an island to port,” said he
”I thought so You had better re to wait now for the dawn, and four eyes are better than two”
Walker is are in a dweadful mess below, sir I can't make head or tail of the smash”
”Well, that ineer could not guess that the captain's pulse was beating a trifle more rapidly with a certain elation They were undoubtedly passing White Horse Island It revealed its presence by deflecting the tremendous sea-river which ferried the _Kansas_ onward at such a rate
In fifteen or twenty minutes Courtenay expected to find indications of a more northerly set of the tide, and he watched the con of this return to the former course If the shi+p crossed the current one way or the other she would certainly be driven ashore on so spur of the island or detached sunken reef Hence, heof the acquired sense of the blind, because the slight chance of ultimate escape for the shi+p and her occupants rested wholly on the assu her to a deep-water inlet, where it hteen htly