"One of the bearings got too hot. It takes time for it to cool off."

The passengers crowded on the companionway kept calling for the captain.

"The captain has other things to do than answer silly questions," said
Wilhelm.

"I think the people should be quieted and given an explanation,"
Frederick declared. "To me a certain amount of fear seems justifiable in
the landlubber, who doesn't know anything of nautical matters and hasn't
the least notion of what is happening."

"Why should they be told anything?" rejoined Wilhelm. "Even if matters
are very bad, it is advisable to deceive them."

"Well, then," said Hahlstroem, "deceive them. Send stewards around to tell
them everything is all right and we'll have to drown."

Shortly afterward, the captain actually did send the little army of
stewards through the vessel to inform the passengers that, as Doctor
Wilhelm had said, one of the bearings had got too hot, and in a short
while the engines would be working again.

"Is there danger?" the stewards were asked a thousand times.

"No," was the decided answer.

To keep the air in her cabin pure, Ingigerd left the door slightly ajar;
and the sight of the colossal _Roland_, as seen from her cabin,
helplessly drifting in the ocean, by no means seemed to bear out the
stewards' declaration.

"There is no use concealing the fact that we are scudding under bare
poles," said Hahlstroem.

"We are dripping oil on the water," said Wilhelm, pointing through the
opening of the door to where Pander and a sailor were lowering a bag of
sail-cloth filled with oil. With the heavy seas that kept sweeping down
like great mountains in motion and the fearfully boiling waves
accompanying the swells, the measure seemed almost ridiculous. Each
instant the dead _Roland_, constantly sending out its long-drawn signal,
which sounded more like a call for help than a warning, was raised up on
a plunging mountain of water, where there seemed as little prospect of
safety as when it sank into the valleys. The great steamer seemed not
to know where to turn. The raging waters twisted it over now on its
starboard side, now on its port side. Of its herculean might, nothing
remained but its unwieldy, helpless bulk. It turned about slowly, and
turned back again, and all of a sudden a fearful sea, like a thousand
hissing white panthers leaping from a dark green mountain ridge, dashed
over the railing.

"That was bad," said Wilhelm, slamming the door sh