ush would be for the starboard
side, on which the boats were quite near the water, carried her, with
difficulty, for the slope was steep, to the port-cutter, which he knew
would be in the charge of a good man, the second officer, whom he had
seen in command there at Sunday boat-drills.

Here, as he had anticipated, the crowd was small, since most people
thought that it would not be possible to get this boat down safely to
the water; or if their powers of reflection were gone, instinct told
them so. That skilful seaman, the second officer, and his appointed
crew, were already at work lowering the cutter from the davits.

"Now," he said, "women and children first."

A number rushed in, and Robert saw that the boat would soon be full.

"I am afraid," he said, "that I must count myself a woman as I carry
one," and by a great effort, holding Benita with one arm, with the other
he let himself down the falls and, assisted by a quartermaster, gained
the boat in safety.

One or two other men scrambled after him.

"Push her off," said the officer; "she can hold no more," and the ropes
were let go.

When they were about twelve feet from the ship's side, from which
they thrust themselves clear with oars, there came a rush of people,
disappointed of places in the starboard boats. A few of the boldest
of these swarmed down the falls, others jumped and fell among them, or
missed and dropped into the sea, or struck upon the sides of the boat
and were killed. Still she reached the water upon an even keel, though
now much overladen. The oars were got out, and they rowed round the bow
of the great ship wallowing in her death-throes, their first idea being
to make for the shore, which was not three miles away.

This brought them to the starboard side, where they saw a hideous scene.
Hundreds of people seemed to be fighting for room, with the result that
some of the boats were overturned, precipitating their occupants into
the water. Others hung by the prow or the stern, the ropes having jammed
in the davits in the frantic haste and confusion, while from them human
beings dropped one by one. Round others not yet launched a hellish
struggle was in progress, the struggle of men, women, and children
battling for their lives, in which the strong, mad with terror, showed
no mercy to the weak.

From that mass of humanity, most of them about to perish, went up a
babel of sounds which in its sum shaped itself to one prolonged scream,
suc