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32 like blue flames, away over the lea the ocean spread blackly towards the dusky green horizon, whilst the soft night air whispered amongst the shrouds.

All at once, as if the sounding of the bell had been a signal, that vibration of the vessel, with the muffled thudding of the pistons, stopped suddenly, and the Rockhampton came to a standstill, while what had been a wind before fell away to a dead calm, and as this stillness came upon them they saw the electric globes suddenly grow dim and disappear; they were in darkness, save for the oil lamp that swung above the bell.

"It has come," said Adela Austin, as instinctively she clutched hold of Philip's arm, while at the same moment shrieks rose from the clock and music-room.

"Come down to the saloon, Mrs Austin, I can guide you safely there; it may only be a temporary stoppage of the machinery, and the stewards will get us lights."

"Yes, that may be so," she replied gently. "You will stay beside me, Mr Mortlake."

"Yes," he answered briefly, and together they groped their way towards where they had so lately dined, amid a rush of the excited passengers.

It was eerie to stand in the darkness amongst that shrieking and unknown mass of humanity until the lights came, with the awful uncertainty of what was to happen next, yet Philip could not feel any trembling of the arm that now held his, and he was too content with the proximity to have space for fear. Another moment and the explosion might come, yet they were together, and that seemed enough for him now or hereafter.

Yet it took some resolution to keep cool in the midst of that wild stampede and confusion of sounds, for the terror that had possessed them, and which they had