'Oh, what can have happened? Are we amongst the ice? Did you hear a noise as if our masts had been splintered?'
I shrieked back—I put it thus strongly, for you cannot imagine the uproar in that cabin, what with the grinding of the ship and the freight, the creaking of a hundred strong fastenings, the cannonading of flying tons of brine against the lifted exposed weather side of the vessel—I say I shrieked back:
'Let us try to get on deck. It is horrible to drown down here.'
'Don't talk like that. What can have happened? Is Edward safe? What has become of the ship? Oh, the suddenness of it! Are we amongst the ice?'
Thus the poor woman raved. She was silenced by a roar of water like a crash of thunder close overhead; a sea of giant bulk had swept the quarter-deck, and in a breath a cataract, sparkling in the lamp light, rushed smoking down the companion, and before we could deliver a scream we were up to our waists.
The water must have been of an icy coldness, but I felt it not—at least in that way; it was no colder than the summer ripples which I would paddle in when a child. Terror had rendered me insensible to pain.
'Cannot we drag ourselves out of it before more comes, or we shall be drowned?' screamed poor Mrs. Burke.
Then it was that the ship began to right. She righted slowly at first, then came to a level keel with a sickening jerk and a wild leap of her whole frame that sent the water in the cabin speeding and roaring white as milk.
A door opened and Mr. Owen stumbled out.
'Oh, my God!' he cried. 'What has happened? I have been unable to release myself. My berth is half-full of water.'