No one knew what might have happened.

The crowd on shore grew silent and solemn before the dread of the possible news of death that might toll in upon their hearts with this uprushing tide.

The whalers went out into the Greenland seas full of strong, hopeful men; but the whalers never returned as they sailed forth.

On land there are deaths among two or three hundred men to be mourned over in every half-year's space of time.

Whose bones had been left to blacken on the gray and terrible icebergs?
Who lay still until the sea should give up its dead?
Who were those who should come back to Monkshaven never, no, never more?
Many a heart swelled with passionate, unspoken fear, as the first whaler lay off the bar on her return voyage.
Molly and Sylvia had left the crowd in this hushed suspense.