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TWENTY YEARS UNDER THE SEA
and engulfed them? Isolated in our storm-tossed vessel, we could know nothing of what was taking place on shore. The reefs, even the cay itself, might be completely submerged and everyone drowned without our knowledge. As that night of terror wore on, my thoughts wandered. Was this to be the end, the end of everything ? I recalled those trying months of waiting in far-off Hollywood. Had all that delay, all of those disappointments, been merely a prelude to shipwreck, to death and the loss of my company on the jagged coral fangs? I felt personally responsible for them all, for I had brought them here — brought them here only to perish. And I shuddered as I thought of their friends, their families and their relatives. Who would tell them the tragic, awful news?
It was midnight when my gloomy forebodings were suddenly interrupted and I snapped back to reality and action. One of our anchor lines had parted. Two other lines held, but to prevent them from chafing away like the first one, I decided they must be attended to, or at any instant we might find ourselves entirely adrift. The storm was now at the height of its fury with visibility reduced to a few feet. I had heard of ioo-mile an hour gales where one had to crawl along on one's stomach to keep from being blown away, or dashed away by the terrific weight of water accompanying the wind; but I had never experienced the thrill of a personal encounter with these elements in full fury until I went
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