Mate Robbins spoke as with authority, and no one thought to question his orders.
All the same, the announcement created a tremendous excitement in the cabin of the wretched yacht.
Diana became hysterical again, poor girl! the horror of that awful night had almost unsettled her reason.
From my heart I pitied Gustavus, feeling that his task of saving a woman whom fright had rendered worse than helpless, was something that contained little of hope.
Heaven knows the thing was bad enough even when taken at its best—Hildegarde, brave little woman, had just as much reason to allow her natural fears to throw her into hysteria as Diana, yet, white-faced, she controlled herself enough to face the terrible situation, ready to do what little she might to snatch victory from almost positive defeat.
I feel sure I would have a more doleful story to tell, even if I lived to relate it, had she been as utterly helpless as the distracted beauty.
The seamen, grim fellows, knowing they had to face the fight of their lives, began pushing for the deck, each man strapping on the life-preserver with which he had provided himself.
They were apparently cool and ready to match their strength against the brutal forces of the sea. For years they had braved the tempest’s wrath, believing, as most sailors do, that it was only a question of time ere their bones must rest far below upon coral beds or banks of sea moss.
That hour had come, perhaps, and with philosophical grimness they faced their fate.
I had arisen as soon as Robbins announced the dread crisis at hand.