At the same time it was very trying.

“Not a word,” said Mole, under his breath.

“Not a move,” whispered Monday.

Clara was lying like a log under an acacia tree.

She scarcely dared to breathe.

Koosh and Kassala, with their attendant pirates, were indulging in a wholesale massacre of the passengers.

After robbing them they killed them.

Shot down like rabbits they were.

In a little while the shots and cries ceased. Not a sound was to be heard.

It was the eternal silence of the tomb.