“My God! Johnson,” he cried.
“What is it, sir?”
“She’s flying a signal of distress, too!”
The two steamers slowly approached each other and, when nearly alongside and about a mile apart, the bell of the Adamant rang to stop.
“There, you see,” said young Spinner to the Boston girl, “she is flying the same flag at her masthead that we are.”
“Then she belongs to the same line as this boat?”
“Oh, certainly,” answered Mr. Cock-Sure Spinner.
“Oh, look! look! look!” cried the enthusiastic Indianapolis girl who was going to take music in Germany.
Everyone looked aloft and saw running up to the masthead a long line of fluttering, many-colored flags. They remained in place for a few moments and then fluttered down again, only to give place to a different string. The same thing was going on on the other steamer.
“Oh, this is too interesting for anything,” said Mrs. Assistant. “I am just dying to know what it all means. I have read of it so often but never saw it before. I wonder when the captain will come down. What does it all mean?” she asked the deck steward.