Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/82

62 less serious circumstances the sight would have been truly ludicrous. In the meantime the inundation was gaining on us; large bodies of water were pouring in through the opened gaps, and according to the engineer, the Great Eastern shipped more than two thousand tons of water, enough to float a frigate of the largest size.

"Well!" exclaimed the Doctor, whose hat had been blown off in the hurricane, "to keep in this position is impossible; it is fool-hardy to hold on any longer; we ought to take flight, the steamship going with her battered stem ahead, is like a man swimming between two currents, with his mouth open."

This Captain Anderson understood at last, for I saw him run to the little wheel on the bridge which commanded the movement of the rudder, the steam immediately rushed into the cylinders at the stern, and the giant turning like a canoe made head towards the north, and fled before the storm.

At this moment, the captain, generally so calm and self-possessed, cried angrily, "My ship is disgraced."

had the Great Eastern tacked and presented her stern to the waves, than the pitching gave way to perfect steadiness; breakfast was served, and the greater part of the passengers, reassured by the ship's stillness, came into the dining-rooms, and took their repast without fear of another shock. Not a plate fell off the table, and not a glass emptied its contents onto the cloth, although the racks had not even been put up. But three-quarters of an hour later the furniture was set in motion again, and the crockery clattered together on the pantry shelves, for the Great Eastern had resumed her westerly course, which for the time had been interrupted.

I went on deck again with Dr. Pitferge, who, seeing the man belonging to the dolls, said to him:

"Your little people have been put to a severe test, sir; those poor babies will never prattle in the United States."

"Pshaw!" replied the enterprising Parisian, "the stock was insured, and my secret has not perished with it."