“Amen to that!” said Harman.
They continued pacing the deck in silence, till suddenly the testing-room opened and Wolff appeared.
The black-bearded Wolff was ghastly white. He had the look of a man who had received a blow in the stomach. He held up a finger to the Captain, who came toward him.
“Come in here,” said Wolff.
Shiner was off his stool and sitting on the couch that ran along the port side of the room. His hands were in his hair, and the dot of the mirror galvanometer was spilling from side to side of the scale unnoticed. Disaster was in the air.
“What’s up?” asked the Captain.
“Up!” cried Shiner, coming out of his lair as one might fancy a cockatrice coming out of its hole. “Everything is up! Our speculation is done for! War has been declared.”
“War been declared? What war?”
“England and Germany and France,” replied Shiner.
“How did you hear it?”