I deliberately took it up and tore it in pieces, despite her entreaty.
“That fellow was a boor, a fool—we’ll try and supplant him by one who has come to his senses, if we are lucky enough to reach the land,” I declared, and that ended the episode.
Time still dragged on.
Several of the men slept, but I could not have done so had my life depended on it; the crisis of my existence was near at hand, and my nerves were strung to a high tension in anticipation of the battle.
I think Diana was overcome by exhaustion, and had given way to slumber, for I heard nothing from her for some hours.
Robbins occasionally went out.
I knew what was on his mind; ostensibly he meant to look at the weather, but in reality it was his mission to discover just how the doomed yacht was standing her pounding.
“Well?” I asked—it was almost four o’clock and in three hours we would have daylight.
He shook his head.
“Storm increasing?” I demanded.