be allowed for transferring everybody to the boats without
rush or confusion of any kind. So now you know all that there is to
know. If you take my advice you will all go to your cabins, dress
yourselves in your warmest clothes, secure money and valuables about
your persons, and then lie down and get a comfortable sleep. If it is
considered desirable that you should be transferred to the boats you
will be told so in good time. And don't hurry. It may be hours yet
before you will be summoned to the boats--if indeed you are summoned at
all."

Again Dick's eloquence had triumphed, and this time the triumph was
distinctly of a more decisive character than on the previous occasion;
his candour--so far as it went--had convinced the people whom he
addressed that if there was any danger at all it was certainly not
imminent; and in a body they turned away, intent upon acting on his
advice.

Within a minute of the disappearance of the last of the second-class
passengers, a loud hissing, shearing sound rent the air, heard
distinctly above the now somewhat moderated roar of the escaping steam,
and, leaning far out over the rail of the promenade deck, Dick was just
in time to mark the heavenward flight of a rocket--the first visible
signal of distress which the _Everest_ had thus far made--and to see it
burst, high up, into a shower of brilliant red stars. It was the light
shed by these stars as they floated downward that first revealed to the
young officer the fact that a thin veil of haze enveloped the ship,
through which, scattered here and there, were several small blocks of
field ice; while away on the starboard quarter, distant about half a
mile, was a much larger mass, standing perhaps two or three feet above
the water's surface, which might well be the berg that had done all the
mischief. But Dick was horrified, as he stared down into the water, to
note how much nearer was the surface than usual, as seen from the level
of the promenade deck--quite three feet nearer, he estimated. And the
ship had sunk to that extent within little more than half an hour!

The lad glanced eagerly about him. The deck below, set apart for the
exclusive use of the second-class passengers, was now tenantless, but
the port of every cabin was aglow with light, showing pretty
conclusively that the people there were following Dick's advice. The
same held good with regard to the cabins on the promenade deck; every
window--and many doors as