d in the forefront of the
gloom, where the air was reddish and thick, Jukes saw a head bang the
deck violently, two thick calves waving on high, muscular arms twined
round a naked body, a yellow-face, open-mouthed and with a set wild
stare, look up and slide away. An empty chest clattered turning over;
a man fell head first with a jump, as if lifted by a kick; and farther
off, indistinct, others streamed like a mass of rolling stones down
a bank, thumping the deck with their feet and flourishing their arms
wildly. The hatchway ladder was loaded with coolies swarming on it
like bees on a branch. They hung on the steps in a crawling, stirring
cluster, beating madly with their fists the underside of the battened
hatch, and the headlong rush of the water above was heard in the
intervals of their yelling. The ship heeled over more, and they began
to drop off: first one, then two, then all the rest went away together,
falling straight off with a great cry.

Jukes was confounded. The boatswain, with gruff anxiety, begged him,
"Don't you go in there, sir."

The whole place seemed to twist upon itself, jumping incessantly the
while; and when the ship rose to a sea Jukes fancied that all these men
would be shot upon him in a body. He backed out, swung the door to, and
with trembling hands pushed at the bolt. . . .

As soon as his mate had gone Captain MacWhirr, left alone on the bridge,
sidled and staggered as far as the wheelhouse. Its door being hinged
forward, he had to fight the gale for admittance, and when at last he
managed to enter, it was with an instantaneous clatter and a bang, as
though he had been fired through the wood. He stood within, holding on
to the handle.

The steering-gear leaked steam, and in the confined space the glass of
the binnacle made a shiny oval of light in a thin white fog. The wind
howled, hummed, whistled, with sudden booming gusts that rattled
the doors and shutters in the vicious patter of sprays. Two coils of
lead-line and a small canvas bag hung on a long lanyard, swung wide off,
and came back clinging to the bulkheads. The gratings underfoot were
nearly afloat; with every sweeping blow of a sea, water squirted
violently through the cracks all round the door, and the man at the
helm had flung down his cap, his coat, and stood propped against the
gear-casing in a striped cotton shirt open on his breast. The little
brass wheel in his hands had the appearance of a bright and fragile
toy. T