“And you know we have got to dress and go on shore,” added poor Martha.
“Ah, bedad, yes! sure we’ve got to go somewhere,” wailed Judith; but she got up and lighted the cabin lamps.
Meanwhile the commotion on deck increased. Suddenly again the captain’s voice was heard above all other sounds:
“Launch the lifeboats!”
And the rushing of many feet on the deck increased, mingled with the rushing of many waters around the ship.
“Lord betune us and harm, the lifeboats! Mary, star of the say,” and so forth, and so forth, said Judith, wailing lamentations and muttering litanies.
“Are we to go on shore in the boats? I thought the ship itself had landed and touched the pier,” said Mrs. Ely, rising to go to her stateroom to put on her bonnet.
“Well, I suppose we shall know what port we have touched sooner or later,” laughed Mrs. Breton, so glad to know that the ship stood still, and to believe that she was about to leave it for the shore.
Britomarte neither spoke nor moved. She knew, if her companions did not, that death was imminent.
The commotion on deck grew furious; it seemed almost as if a mutiny had sprung up among the seamen; too well she knew the meaning of that commotion; the crew were seizing the lifeboats. Again the voice of the captain was heard near the companionway: