FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   >>  
where the few remaining boats were being lowered, women and children shrinking back, some afraid to venture, some preferring to stay with their husbands, a few perhaps in the grip of cold and terror. Then Andrews came and waving his arms gave loud command: "Ladies, you must get in at once. There is not a minute to lose. You cannot pick and choose your boat. Don't hesitate. Get in, get in!" They obeyed him. Do they remember to-day, any of them, that to him they, as so many more, may owe their lives? A little way back from that scene, Miss Sloan stood calmly waiting and seeing Andrews for the last time. She herself was not very anxious to leave the ship, for all her friends were staying behind and she felt it was mean to go. But the command of the man, who for nearly two hours she had seen doing as splendidly as now he was doing, came imperatively. "Don't hesitate! There's not a moment to lose. Get in!" So she stepped into the last boat and was saved. It was then five minutes past two. The _Titanic_ had fifteen minutes more to live. Well, all was done now that could be done, and the time remaining was short. The Forecastle head was under water. All around, out on the sea, so calm under those wonderful stars, the boats were scattered, some near, some a mile away or more, the eyes of most in them turned back upon the doomed ship as one by one her port lights, that still burnt row above row in dreadful sloping lines, sank slowly into darkness. Soon the lines would tilt upright, then flash out and flash bright again; then, as the engines crashed down through the bulkheads, go out once more, and leave that awful form standing up against the sky, motionless, black, preparing for the final plunge. But that time was not yet. Some fifteen minutes were left: and in those minutes we still have sight of Andrews. One met him, bareheaded and carrying a lifebelt, on his way to the bridge perhaps to bid the Captain goodbye. Later, an assistant steward saw him standing alone in the smoking-room, his arms folded over his breast and the belt lying on a table near him. The steward asked him, "Aren't you going to have a try for it, Mr. Andrews?" He never answered or moved, "just stood like one stunned." What did he see as he stood there, alone, rapt? We who know the man and his record can believe that before him was home and all the loved ones there, wife and child, father and mother, brothers and sister, relatives, fri
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   >>  



Top keywords:
Andrews
 

minutes

 
hesitate
 

standing

 
fifteen
 
steward
 
command
 

remaining

 

darkness

 

crashed


slowly

 

dreadful

 

bulkheads

 

sloping

 

upright

 

engines

 

motionless

 

bright

 

preparing

 

plunge


record

 

answered

 

stunned

 

brothers

 
mother
 
sister
 

relatives

 

father

 

goodbye

 

Captain


assistant

 
bridge
 
bareheaded
 

carrying

 

lifebelt

 

smoking

 

folded

 

breast

 

obeyed

 
remember

choose
 
calmly
 

waiting

 

minute

 
afraid
 

venture

 

preferring

 

shrinking

 

children

 
lowered