"What is this? Are we moving?"
"Yes we're off," replied Madden.
"Under our own power?" he inquired, turning around and staring at the smokeless funnel.
"No, we're being towed."
"Towed! Towed!" exclaimed Smith in a weak voice. "What's towing us?"
"We don't know, sor," replied a cockney.
There was a silence in which Caradoc stood tall and cadaverous as a ghost. "Am I dreaming this, Madden?" he muttered finally. "Did you say we were being towed?"
"That's right."
"What's towing us—not—not the dry dock—don't say the dry dock's towing us!"
"We don't know, sor," repeated the cockney.