Page:The Great Secret.djvu/92

76 tried to resist going, for I was fearful lest we should be discovered; but some power beyond my will drew me to the spot where I had been cast, and forced me to lie down once more upon the body that was under me when I recovered my consciousness after the explosion—the body that was so like me in dress and shape, which my husband concluded was me, and there I waited with a numb horror for what was to come.

"I looked round the saloon to see where the others had gone, but could see nothing except the mutilated dead on every side of me. You also had left me, Philip, to my fate, while I felt chained to that body, unable either to move or cry out, with such a feeling of frozen despair and loathing upon me that no bodily pain could equal.

"I feared and hated the dead round me, and particularly the corpse to which I was bound, and although I tried to be pitiful for them, I could not feel otherwise than sickness and disgust, as if they were foul substances with which I had no sympathy. They were dead, and I was living, yet suffering the sensation of being buried alive.

"At first it was not very light, but gradually the sun rose and brightened the saloon, showing my ghastly surroundings more plainly, and adding to my awful despair and horror. I had the knowledge now upon me that the murderers would soon come and discover me lying there, and then the escape of last night would have been all in vain.

"By and by they came, and began to lift up the dead and carry them on deck. I knew what that was for, before I heard the splashing or saw the bodies darken the portholes as they were cast overboard. They took those nearest to the distant door first, so