gly, "if you were at this moment called to get into the boats,
you would be very sorry when you afterwards remembered that in your
hurry you had left all your valuables behind you. And boating in this
weather is a most unpleasantly cold business, I assure you."

A rather lengthy silence followed this speech of Dick's. Those whom he
had addressed were thinking very seriously about what he had said
touching money and valuables. Probably not one of them had dreamed of
adopting the precautionary measures suggested, and many of them were
painfully conscious at that moment that every penny they possessed was
locked up in the trunks in their cabins. Several of them began to move
hesitatingly towards the deck-house entrance. Then a man who was
leading the way, suddenly halted and shouted--

"Look here, mister. Tell us the plain truth, as man to man. Is this
ship going to sink, or isn't she? That's all that we want to know."

The question set Dick's mind working at lightning speed. Should he or
should he not deny the dreadful truth? He felt that he could not
unreservedly deny it, yet, on the other hand, unreservedly to admit it
might precipitate a panic. He quickly decided that the proper thing to
do would be to prepare those people for the inevitable, but to do so in
such a fashion as to reassure them to the utmost possible extent.
Therefore he answered:

"As man to man I tell you that we hope to take this ship safely into New
York harbour. But I will not attempt to conceal from you the fact that
she has sustained a certain amount of damage from her collision with a
mass of ice and she is leaking a bit--stop! Don't run away until I have
told you everything," he continued, as he saw the listening crowd below
bracing itself for a rush. "As I have said, the ship is leaking a bit,
but the steam pumps are at work--listen! you can hear the beat of them--
and the water is pouring out of her almost, if not quite, as fast as it
is pouring in." (This was very far from being the truth, and Dick knew
it, but he considered that the circumstances justified the
prevarication). "But it is a rule with this company, as it is with many
others, that the moment a ship sustains any damage, however slight, the
first step taken is to provide for the safety of passengers, and that is
why you see the boats being got ready. If the leak should be found to
be gaining on the pumps, ample notice will be given you, and plenty of
time will