ber him, and it
needed more than a human voice to pit itself against the hurricane which
roared over the vessel. The unhappy wretch knew that something out of
the ordinary had taken place, and he was scared half out of his wits by
the continued absence of the crew. Luckily for himself, he did not
appreciate the real predicament of the ship, or he would have raved
himself into madness.

Walker, in his brief catalogue of occupations, had suppressed one. To
make sure, Christobal closed a water-tight bulkhead door which cut off
the principal staterooms from the saloon. Then he and his two helpers
carried out a painful but necessary task. It was his duty to certify
whether or not life was extinct. There were very few exceptions. The
three men lifted the bodies and threw them overboard. When they reached
the corpses of the second officer and a Spanish engineer who had been
knifed in the defense of the jolly-boat--his comrade had scrambled into
one of the life-boats--Tollemache took possession of such money,
documents, and valuables as were in their pockets, intending to draw up
an inventory when an opportunity presented itself.

Though they knew not the moment when a sickening crash would herald the
final dissolution of the ship, they proceeded with their work
methodically. In half an hour they had reached the end. All the injured
men--seven nondescript sailors and firemen--were carried to the saloon
and placed under Christobal's care. Walker dived below to the
engine-room, where he had already disconnected the rods broken or bent by
the fracture of a guard ring, which, in its turn, was injured by the
blowing out of a junk-ring, a stout ring of forged steel secured to one
of the pistons. He could do nothing more on deck. Whether he was
destined to live fifty seconds or as many years he was ill content to
hear his beloved engines knocking themselves to pieces with each roll of
the ship.

Tollemache, who undertook the firing of the donkey-boiler, which was
situated on the main deck aft of the saloon--for the _Kansas_ was built
chiefly to accommodate cargo--during his wanderings round the world had
picked up sufficient knowledge of steam-power to shovel fuel into the
furnace and regulate the water-level by the feed valve and pump. The
small engine, more reliable and quite as powerful as a hundred men, was
in perfect order. It abounded in valves and taps, but Walker's parting
instructions were explicit:

"Keep