Page:Cruise of the Dry Dock.djvu/75

 The cable had parted!

Madden wondered dully what sort of cataclysm had occurred on the little tug at that tremendous strain.

Both men still hung to the hand-grips on the useless wheel as the dock rose and dropped, thundered and groaned. Now and then from the storm-swept wave tops Madden could catch the glimmer of the Vulcan's light. This slipped farther and farther into the void, heaving night, then he saw it no more.

A sense of vast desolation swept over the American, and he was still staring into the black pandemonium ahead when Deschaillon, Hogan and a third man came struggling toward him.

“You may go back!” he yelled wearily above the uproar. “Go back—there's nothing to do. The cable's broke—the Vulcan is gone.”