he large missal with the gold
cross which he had seen hundreds of times lying on the altar in the
church at home.

The little acolytes now placed their candles at the side of his
hammock and knelt down, each swinging a censer. The old sailor
caught the sweet odour of burning incense, saw blue clouds ascend,
and heard the rhythmical click, click of the censer chains. In the
meantime, his mother had opened the big book and was reading the
prayers for the dead. Now it seemed good to him to be lying at the
bottom of the sea--much better than being in the churchyard. He
stretched himself in the hammock, and for a long time he could hear
his mother's voice mumbling Latin words. The smoke of the incense
curled round him as he listened to the even click, click of the
moving censers.

Then it all ceased. The acolytes took up their candles and walked
away, followed by his mother, who suddenly closed the book with a
bang. He saw all three disappear beneath the gray hammocks.

The instant they had gone the silence was at an end. He heard the
breathing of his comrades, the timbers creaked, the wind whistled,
and the waves swish-swashed against the ship. Then he knew that he
was still among the living, and on top of the sea.

"Jesu Maria! What can be the meaning of the things I have seen this
night?" he asked himself.

Ten minutes later _L'Univers_ was struck amidships. It was as if
the steamer had been cut in two.

"This was what I expected," thought the old seaman.

During the terrible confusion that ensued while the other sailors,
only half awake, rolled out of their hammocks, he carefully dressed
himself in his best clothes. He had had a foretaste of death which
was sweet and mild, and it seemed to him that the sea had already
claimed him as its own.

***

A little cabin boy lay sleeping in the deckhouse near the dining
salon when the collision occurred. Startled by the shock, he sat
up in his bunk, half dazed, and wondering what had happened. Just
over his head there was a small porthole, through which he peered.
All he could see was fog and some shadowy gray object which had, as
it were, sprung from the fog. He seemed to see monstrous gray
wings. A mammoth bird must have swooped down on the ship, he
thought. The steamer rolled and heeled as the huge monster went at
it with claws and beak and flapping wings.

The little cabin boy thought he would die from fright. In a second
he was wide awake. Then he discovered t