Sometimes the
head of a watery cone would topple on board and mingle with the rolling
flurry of foam on the swamped deck; and the Nan-Shan wallowed heavily at
the bottom of a circular cistern of clouds. This ring of dense vapours,
gyrating madly round the calm of the centre, encompassed the ship like
a motionless and unbroken wall of an aspect inconceivably sinister.
Within, the sea, as if agitated by an internal commotion, leaped in
peaked mounds that jostled each other, slapping heavily against her
sides; and a low moaning sound, the infinite plaint of the storm's
fury, came from beyond the limits of the menacing calm. Captain MacWhirr
remained silent, and Jukes' ready ear caught suddenly the faint,
long-drawn roar of some immense wave rushing unseen under that thick
blackness, which made the appalling boundary of his vision.
"Of course," he started resentfully, "they thought we had caught at the
chance to plunder them. Of course! You said--pick up the money. Easier
said than done. They couldn't tell what was in our heads. We came in,
smash--right into the middle of them. Had to do it by a rush."
"As long as it's done . . . ," mumbled the Captain, without attempting
to look at Jukes. "Had to do what's fair.
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