et. Then the lights went out, all but the
yellow flame of a small oil lamp which none of them had known was there.

The glass-panelled door opened widely, and a burly figure holding a
torch, which flared up in the still, moist air, was outlined against the
steamy waves of fog.

"Come out of here!" he cried; and then, as some people tried to push
past him, "Steady, keep cool! There'll be room in the boats for every
soul on board," and Coxeter, looking at the pale, glistening face, told
himself that the man was lying, and that he knew he lied.

They stumbled out, one by one, and joined the great company which was
now swarming over the upper deck, each man and woman forlorn and lonely
as human beings must ever be when individually face to face with death.

Coxeter's right hand gripped firmly Mrs. Archdale's arm. She was
pressing closely to his side, shrinking back from the rough crowd
surging about them, and he was filled with a fierce protective
tenderness which left no room in his mind for any thought of self. His
one thought was how to preserve his companion from contact with some of
those about them; wild-eyed, already distraught creatures, swayed with a
terror which set them apart from the mass of quiet, apparently dazed
people who stood patiently waiting to do what they were told.

Close to Nan and Coxeter two men were talking Spanish; they were
gesticulating, and seemed to be disagreeing angrily as to what course to
pursue. Presently one of them suddenly produced a long knife which
glittered in the torchlight; with it he made a gesture as if to show the
other that he meant to cut his way through the crowd towards the spot,
now railed off with rope barriers, where the boats were being got ready
for the water.

With a quick movement Coxeter unbuttoned his cloak and drew Nan within
its folds; putting his arms round her he held her, loosely and yet how
firmly clasped to his breast. "I can't help it," he muttered
apologetically. "Forgive me!" As only answer she seemed to draw yet
closer to him, and then she lay, still and silent, within his sheltering
arms,--and at that moment he remembered to be glad he had not kissed her
wrist.

They two stood there, encompassed by a living wall, and yet how
strangely alone. The fog had become less dense, or else the resin
torches which flared up all about them cleared the air.

From the captain's bridge there whistled every quarter minute a high
rocket, and soon from behind t