ederick's head since
the shipwreck.

"I am dying," he thought when he reached his room. "I am dying, or else
I am going crazy." The clock on the wall came into his vision and receded
again. He saw his bed and clutched for the post.

"Don't fall," said Rasmussen, who was still sitting there with the
thermometer in his hand.

But no, this time it was not Rasmussen. It was Mr. Rinck, with his yellow
cat in his lap, the man who had been in charge of the mail on the
_Roland_.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Rinck?" Frederick roared.

The next moment he was at the window in the light of the dazzling sun,
which radiated, not light, but raven-black darkness, like a hole in the
heavens pouring out night. The wind suddenly began to moan and howl
about the house. It whistled derisively through the door cracks, like the
jeers and taunts of a mob of rowdies. Or was it Mr. Rinck's cat miauing?
Or was it children whimpering in the hall? Frederick groped about. The
house quivered and was thrown from its foundations. It swayed to and fro.
The walls began to snap and crack like wickerwork. The door flew open.
The rain and hail whipped in. A sudden gust of wind lifted Frederick from
his feet. Somebody cried "Danger!" The electric bells raged and mingled
with the voices of the storm.

"It's not so! It's a lie! The devil is hoaxing you. You will never set
foot on American soil. Your hour is come. You are at the Judgment seat.
You are going to perdition."

Suddenly silence set in. Something unheard-of was about to happen,
something far worse to see perhaps than to experience. Frederick wanted
to save himself. He tried to gather his things together, but he had no
hat. He could not find his trousers, his coat, or his boots.

Outside, the moon was shining. In the bright light, the storm was raging.
Suddenly, like a wall broad as the horizon, the sea came rolling up. The
ocean had risen over both its banks.

"Atlantis! The hour has come," thought Frederick. "Our earth is to be
submerged like Atlantis of old."

He ran down-stairs. On the steps he caught up his three children and
realised it was they who all the time had been whining and whimpering in
the hall. He carried the smallest one on his arm and led the other two by
the hand. At the front door, they saw the dreadful tidal wave sweeping
nearer and nearer in the ashen light of the moon, carrying along the
ship, which was a steamer rolling and pounding fearfully in the waters.
The