t fell, Jukes could see the salient ribs of one, the
yellow, wistful face of another; bowed necks; or would meet a dull stare
directed at his face. He was amazed that there had been no corpses; but
the lot of them seemed at their last gasp, and they appeared to him more
pitiful than if they had been all dead.

Suddenly one of the coolies began to speak. The light came and went on
his lean, straining face; he threw his head up like a baying hound. From
the bunker came the sounds of knocking and the tinkle of some dollars
rolling loose; he stretched out his arm, his mouth yawned black, and the
incomprehensible guttural hooting sounds, that did not seem to belong to
a human language, penetrated Jukes with a strange emotion as if a brute
had tried to be eloquent.

Two more started mouthing what seemed to Jukes fierce denunciations; the
others stirred with grunts and growls. Jukes ordered the hands out of
the 'tweendecks hurriedly. He left last himself, backing through the
door, while the grunts rose to a loud murmur and hands were extended
after him as after a malefactor. The boatswain shot the bolt, and
remarked uneasily, "Seems as if the wind had dropped, sir."

The seamen were glad to get back into the alleyway. Secretly each of
them thought that at the last moment he could rush out on deck--and
that was a comfort. There is something horribly repugnant in the idea
of being drowned under a deck. Now they had done with the Chinamen, they
again became conscious of the ship's position.

Jukes on coming out of the alleyway found himself up to the neck in
the noisy water. He gained the bridge, and discovered he could detect
obscure shapes as if his sight had become preternaturally acute. He saw
faint outlines. They recalled not the familiar aspect of the Nan-Shan,
but something remembered--an old dismantled steamer he had seen years
ago rotting on a mudbank. She recalled that wreck.

There was no wind, not a breath, except the faint currents created by
the lurches of the ship. The smoke tossed out of the funnel was settling
down upon her deck. He breathed it as he passed forward. He felt the
deliberate throb of the engines, and heard small sounds that seemed to
have survived the great uproar: the knocking of broken fittings, the
rapid tumbling of some piece of wreckage on the bridge. He perceived
dimly the squat shape of his captain holding on to a twisted
bridge-rail, motionless and swaying as if rooted to the planks. The