the face. The End indeed, but
through it all, the clasp of a strong man's arms!

Mercifully it is not to one man in ten thousand that there comes so
terrific an experience, and those who make the exception are as a rule
incapable of describing their sensations at the dread moment, for even
as a mortal wound deadens the physical sensations, so does an
overwhelming shock paralyse the mind. Consider it in cold blood, one
moment, ye who read, seated comfortably in your homes,--a mysterious
thunder crashing suddenly into ordered silence; the shivering reel of
what has stood as solid ground, but which in a lightning flash is
realised to be but a plank between safety and destruction. The heavens
have fallen; the earth has rocked; and on all sides tosses the hungry
sea... What wonder if, in its turn, the brain reels and loses power.

Katrine was conscious of nothing but an impulse to cling closer and
closer, a terror of being separated from Bedford by so much as a second.
If he were with her she could face what might come; without him madness
was near.

With a second shock, hardly less awesome than the first, the towering
mass fell back, and drifted into the fog; the deck shivered and heeled,
as the water rushed through the yawning gap.

"All on deck! All on deck!"

The order rang from the bridge, but it was not needed. Already every
soul on board the huge vessel was fleeing along the companionways and
corridors. If death threatened, at least let it be death in the open,
not the death of a rat in a trap! Ghastly and panting they reached the
deck; ghastly and panting, but with magnificent control, they stood and
waited the word of command from the figure on the bridge. Katrine
raised her head from Bedford's shoulder, and gazed into his face. The
stewards were pacing the deck, turning on the electric switches. There
was one near at hand which lit the two faces with a faint, unearthly
light. The blue eyes and the grey gazed into each other, deep, deep, as
they had done at the first moment of meeting, but now that gaze held a
deeper meaning, a world of revelation, a world of regret!

Katrine had only one desire; she voiced it with the simplicity of a
child:

"Stay with me! Don't go away!"

"Never!" he cried, and tightened his grasp. "Whatever happens we're
together, Katrine. You're mine. I'll keep you--"

"Lower the boats!"

The order rang out, short and sharp. The stewards were handing round
lifebelts