Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/131

 Need it be said that something very like despair reigned for the moment on board the Great Eastern?

Most of the gentlemen on board—never dreaming of catastrophe—were at luncheon, when Mr. Canning entered the saloon with a look that caused every one to start.

"It is all over!—it is gone!" he said, and hastened to his cabin.

Mr. Field, with the composure of faith and courage though very pale, entered the saloon immediately after, and confirmed the chief engineer's statement.

"The cable has parted," he said, "and has gone overboard."

From the chiefs down even to Stumps and his fraternity all was blank dismay! As for our hero Robin Wright, he retired to his cabin, flung himself on his bed, and sobbed as though his heart would break.

But such a state of things could not last. Men's spirits may be stunned and crushed, but they are seldom utterly overwhelmed so long as life endures.

Recovering from the shock, Mr. Canning set about the process of grappling for the lost cable with persistent energy. But fishing in water two and a half miles deep is no easy matter.