Page:Cruise of the Dry Dock.djvu/243

 “What's towing us? I don't see it?” cried Madden.

Several arms pointed forward. Leonard peered through the gloom. The crescent moon and the stars filtered down a tinsel light. The faint shine merely made the darkness more evident Madden seemed to catch a glimmer of a bulk at the end of the anchor line some hundred yards distant. He listened but heard only the gurgle of the Vulcan's wake and the creak of her plates.

When the sheer panic of surprise had worn away somewhat, the weirdness of the uncanny voyage came upon the crew with tenfold force. They stood gripping the rail, staring ahead with the feeling of condemned prisoners on their way to the gallows.

“We're 'eaded for the 'ole in th' sea!” muttered Mulcher.

“We'll go down tug an' hall,” mumbled Galton unsteadily. “Fish bait, that's w'ot we are!”

“I've heard sea serpents can sting a man and numb him so he won't live or die,” shivered Hogan, “like a spider stings a fly.”