“I only have a sort of misty recollection of lying there after the explosion, till I was carried out on deck and laid in the sun.”

Then I told him all about being like in a nightmare, and hearing them talk of throwing us both overboard, only Bob Hampton said we were alive.

“The scoundrel!” he said bitterly.

“Well, I thought it very jolly of him then,” I said, “for if it had not been for him we should have—”

I pointed downward.

“Right to the bottom of the sea,” I added.

“Yes; and you seem to have been hurt.”

“Hurt? I should think I was, horribly,” I cried; “but it don’t seem so bad now, since I’ve been helping you.”

“But the passengers, Dale?” he said excitedly, as he tried to sit up, but sank back with a groan; “have you not heard anything whatever about them?”

I shook my head.