sly, led by one boat in which some
green flares were found, which acted as a beacon for which the others
made. One man had a pocket electric lamp, which he flashed now and
then, a little ray of hope and guidance shining across those dark and
miserable waters. Not all of the boats had food and water on board. Many
women were only in their night-clothes, some of the men in evening
dress; everyone was bitterly cold, although, fortunately, there was no
wind and no sea.

The stars paled in the sky; the darkness became a little lighter; the
gray daylight began to come. Out of the surrounding gloom a wider and
wider area of sea became visible, with here and there a boat discernible
on it, and here and there some fragments of wreckage. By this time the
boats had rowed away from the dreadful region, and but few floating
bodies were visible. The waves rose and fell, smooth as oil, first gray
in colour, and then, as the light increased, the pure dark blue of
mid-ocean. The eastern sky began to grow red under the cloud bank, and
from red to orange, and from orange to gold, the lovely pageantry of an
Atlantic dawn began to unfold itself before the aching eyes that had
been gazing on prodigies and horrors. From out that well of light in the
sky came rays that painted the wave-backs first with rose, and then with
saffron, and then with pure gold. And in the first flush of that blessed
and comforting light the draggled and weary sufferers saw, first a speck
far to the south, then a smudge of cloud, and then the red and black
smoke-stack of a steamer that meant succour and safety for them.

XV

From every quarter of the ocean, summoned by the miracle of the wireless
voice, many ships had been racing since midnight to the help of the
doomed liner. From midnight onwards captains were being called by
messages from the wireless operators of their ships, telling them that
the _Titanic_ was asking for help; courses were being altered and chief
engineers called upon to urge their stokehold crews to special efforts;
for coal means steam, and steam means speed, and speed may mean life.
Many ships that could receive the strong electric impulses sent out from
the _Titanic_ had not electric strength enough to answer; but they
turned and came to that invisible spot represented by a few figures
which the faithful wireless indicated. Even as far as five hundred miles
away, the _Parisian_ turned in her tracks in obedience to the call and
cam