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Presently she resumed as though she had not ceased speaking. "I went down and
down and down. I thought I should never cease to sink. I felt no particular
distress until I suddenly started upward at ever-increasing velocity; then my
lungs seemed about to burst, and I must have lost consciousness, for I remember
nothing more until I opened my eyes after listening to a torrent of invective
against Germany and Germans. Tell me, please, all that happened after the ship
sank."
I told her, then, as well as I could, all that I had seen--the submarine shelling the
open boats and all the rest of it. She thought it marvelous that we should have
been spared in so providential a manner, and I had a pretty speech upon my
tongue's end, but lacked the nerve to deliver it. Nobs had come over and nosed
his muzzle into her lap, and she stroked his ugly face, and at last she leaned over
and put her cheek against his forehead. I have always admired Nobs; but this
was the first time that it had ever occurred to me that I might wish to be Nobs. I
wondered how he would take it, for he is as unused to women as I. But he took
to it as a duck takes to water. What I lack of being a ladies' man, Nobs certainly
makes up for as a ladies' dog. The old scalawag just closed his eyes and put on
one of the softest "sugar-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth" expressions you ever saw
and stood there taking it and asking for more. It made me jealous.
"You seem fond of dogs," I said.
"I am fond of this dog," she replied.
Whether she meant anything personal in that reply I did not know; but I took it
as personal and it made me feel mighty good.
As we drifted about upon that vast expanse of loneliness it is not strange that we
should quickly become well acquainted. Constantly we scanned the horizon for
signs of smoke, venturing guesses as to our chances of rescue; but darkness
settled, and the black night enveloped us without ever the sight of a speck upon
the waters.
We were thirsty, hungry, uncomfortable, and cold. Our wet garments had dried
but little and I knew that the girl must be in grave danger from the exposure to a
night of cold and wet upon the water in an open boat, without sufficient clothing
and no food. I had managed to bail all the water out of the boat with cupped
hands, ending by mopping the balance up with my handkerchief--a slow and
back-breaking procedure; thus I had made a comparatively dry place for the girl
to lie down low in the bottom of the boat, where the sides would protect her from
the night wind, and when at last she did so, almost overcome as she was by
weakness and fatigue, I threw my wet coat over her further to thwart the chill.
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