knew by name every wave along thirty from 60dN.
to 60dS. However, I'd hate to vouch for this.

Well, to get back to my narrative; we kept on dropping slowly toward
the surface the while we bucked the west wind, clawing away from thirty
as fast as we could. I was on the bridge, and as we dropped from the
brilliant sunlight into the dense vapor of clouds and on down through
them to the wild, dark storm strata beneath, it seemed that my spirits
dropped with the falling ship, and the buoyancy of hope ran low in
sympathy.

The waves were running to tremendous heights, and the Coldwater was not
designed to meet such waves head on. Her elements were the blue ether,
far above the raging storm, or the greater depths of ocean, which no
storm could ruffle.

As I stood speculating upon our chances once we settled into the
frightful Maelstrom beneath us and at the same time mentally computing
the hours which must elapse before aid could reach us, the wireless
operator clambered up the ladder to the bridge, and, disheveled and
breathless, stood before me at salute. It needed but a glance at him
to assure me that something was amiss.

"What now?" I asked.

"The wireless, sir!" he cried. "My God, sir, I cannot send."

"But the emergency outfit?" I asked.

"I have tried everything, sir. I have exhausted every resource. We
cannot send," and he drew himself up and saluted again.

I dismissed him with a few kind words, for I knew that it was through
no fault of his that the mechanism was antiquated and worthless, in
common with the balance of the Coldwater's equipment. There was no
finer operator in Pan-America than he.

The failure of the wireless did not appear as momentous to me as to
him, which is not unnatural, since it is but human to feel that when
our own little cog slips, the entire universe must necessarily be put
out of gear. I knew that if this storm were destined to blow us across
thirty, or send us to the bottom of the ocean, no help could reach us
in time to prevent it. I had ordered the message sent solely because
regulations required it, and not with any particular hope that we could
benefit by it in our present extremity.

I had little time to dwell upon the coincidence of the simultaneous
failure of the wireless and the buoyancy generators, since very shortly
after the Coldwater had dropped so low over the waters that all my
attention was necessarily centered upon the delicate business of
settling