'Give her steam there!' said the captain to the engine-room. 'Steam
for the whistle, if we have to go dead slow.'

We bellowed again, and the damp dripped off the awnings on to the
deck as we listened for the reply. It seemed to be astern this time,
but much nearer than before.

'The _Pembroke Castle_ on us!' said Keller; and then, viciously,
'Well, thank God, we shall sink her too.'

'It's a side-wheel steamer,' I whispered. 'Can't you hear the
paddles?'

This time we whistled and roared till the steam gave out, and the
answer nearly deafened us. There was a sound of frantic threshing in
the water, apparently about fifty yards away, and something shot past
in the whiteness that looked as though it were gray and red.

'The _Pembroke Castle_ bottom up,' said Keller, who, being a
journalist, always sought for explanations. 'That's the colours of a
Castle liner. We're in for a big thing.'

'The sea is bewitched,' said Frithiof from the wheel-house. 'There
are _two_ steamers!'

Another siren sounded on our bow, and the little steamer rolled in
the wash of something that had passed unseen.

'We're evidently in the middle of a fleet,' said Keller quietly. 'If
one doesn't run us down, the other will. Phew! What in creation is