Then, and before the remnant sank into the vortex beneath,
the spectacle went out in the darkness of unconsciousness; for a
report, as of concentrated thunder, struck them down. A great wave had
left the crater-like depression in the sea, which threw the boat on
end, and with the inward rush of surrounding water rose a mighty gray
cone, which then subsided to a hollow, while another wave followed the
first. Again and again this gray pillar rose and fell, each subsidence
marked by the sending forth of a wave. And long before these
concentric waves had lost themselves in the battle with the
storm-driven combers from the ocean, the half-filled boat, with her
unconscious passengers, had drifted over the spot where lay the
shattered remnant, which, with the splintered fragments of wood and
iron strewn on the surface and bottom of the sea for a mile around, and
the lessening cloud of dust in the air, was all that was left of the
derelict _Neptune_ and one of the finest cruisers in the Spanish navy.
A few days later, two exhausted, half-starved men pulled a whaleboat up
to the steps of the wharf at Cadiz, where they told some lies and sold
their boat.
Pages:
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437