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Updated: August 22, 2024
Fortunately for us, our first rocket had been seen from the ship, else the launch might have been too late to rescue us, and what we had taken for a gleam from the search-light was in fact a Coston signal, our distance from the Burnside not enabling us to distinguish its red and blue lights, the white alone carrying that far.
This strange, wireless telephone was so arranged that a search-light beam could be used for the light path, and distances up to three miles were covered. Even with this limited range the search-light telephone had certain advantages. Its message could be received only by those in the direct line of the light.
This, of course, added to his woe; but it was forgotten in an instant, for some one on the new boat had turned a search-light directly upon Charon himself, and simultaneously hailed the master of the ferry- boat. "Charon!" cried the shade in charge of the light. "Charon, ahoy!" "Ahoy yourself!" returned the old man, paddling his craft close up to the stranger. "What do you want?"
From somewhere ashore a great search-light swept our top structure, swept every top structure as we filed out. Some one on each top structure must have given the proper sign, for that was all. All that night, and next day, for days and days thereafter, with shifting formations and varying speeds, we steamed. All were good, seaworthy ships, but little things will happen.
A flash, a roar, a choking cloud of smoke, and then a yell from the Speedy's crew. In the glare of the search-light the fugitive steamer was seen to take a sudden sheer, that a minute later was followed by a crash, and then she remained motionless. Instantly the Speedy was slowed down and moved cautiously towards the wreck, with busy lead marking soundings every few seconds.
It was not until night came that the din stopped, and her brain became clear again, cruelly, pitilessly clear. Deep into the night she lay awake tormenting herself with figures. How hideous, how intolerable they were! They passed and repassed in her brain in the uncompromising search-light of conscience, like malicious, mouthing imps.
One minute passed in breathless silence; another minute, during which we shivered slightly with cold and excitement; ten seconds more, and a sudden flash in the direction of the ship, which we took to be a search-light answer to our rocket of distress, was greeted with a simultaneous yell of delight.
The last words I heard were from the mouth of Oro who screamed out: "Behold the balance of the World, you miserable, doubting men, and behold me change its path turning it as the steersman turns a ship!" Then he made certain signs to Yva, who in obedience to them approached the porthole or search-light to which she did something that I could not distinguish.
And all the time the vivid stare of Jim Cheriton was turned like a search-light on Peter's face, and his odd smile grew and grew. Cheriton was watching, observing, taking in something new, trying to solve some problem. At the end of half an hour Lord Evelyn said, "Peter Margerison, you've lost some of the religious fervour of your youth.
She sighed with weariness and dropped cross-legged down on the coping tiles against which he leaned, regaining his breath. She squatted there, cooingly, like a child exhausted with its evening games. "I 'm dished!" she murmured, as she sat there breathing audibly through the darkness. "I 'm dished for this coast!" He sat down beside her, staring at the search-light.
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