news.

They were learning facts up here in the Marconi room. They knew that the
_Titanic_ was taking in water, and they knew that she was sinking by the
head; and what they knew they flashed out into the night for the benefit
of all who had ears to hear. They knew that there were many ships in
their vicinity; but they knew also that hardly any of them carried more
than one operator, and that even Marconi operators earning L4 a month
must go to bed and sleep sometimes, and that it was a mere chance if
their call was heard. But presently the Cunard liner _Carpathia_
answered and told them her position, from which it appeared that she was
about seventy miles away. The _Carpathia_, which was heading towards the
Mediterranean, told them she had altered her course and was heading full
steam to their assistance. The _Carpathia's_ voice was much fainter than
the _Frankfurt's_, from which Phillips assumed that the _Frankfurt_ was
the nearer ship; but there was a certain lack of promptitude on board
the _Frankfurt_ which made Phillips impatient. While he was still
sending out the call for help, after the _Frankfurt_ had answered it,
she interrupted him again, asking what was the matter. They told Captain
Smith, who said, "That fellow is a fool," an opinion which Phillips and
Bride not only shared, but which they even found time to communicate to
the operator on the _Frankfurt_. By this time the _Olympic_ had also
answered her twin sister's cry for help, but she was far away, more than
three hundred miles; and although she too turned and began to race
towards the spot where the _Titanic_ was lying so quietly, it was felt
that the honours of salving her passengers would go to the _Carpathia_.
The foolish _Frankfurt_ operator still occasionally interrupted with a
question, and he was finally told, with such brusqueness as the wireless
is capable of, to keep away from his instrument and not interfere with
the serious conversations of the _Titanic_ and _Carpathia_.

Then Bride took Phillips's place at the instrument and succeeded in
getting a whisper from the _Baltic_, and gradually, over hundreds of
miles of ocean, the invisible ether told the ships that their giant
sister was in distress. The time passed quickly with these urgent
conversations on which so much might depend, and hour by hour and minute
by minute the water was creeping up the steep sides of the ship. Once
the Captain looked in and told them that the engine-rooms were