The engineer rebounded vertically full length and collapsed again into a vague heap.

This heap said 'What's that ?' in the muffled accents of profound grief.

A faint noise as of thunder, of thunder infinitely remote, less than a sound, hardly more than a vibration, passed slowly, and the ship quivered in response, as if the thunder had growled deep down in the water.

The eyes of the two Malays at the wheel glittered towards the white men, but their dark hands remained closed on the spokes.

The sharp hull driving on its way seemed to rise a few inches in succession through its whole length, as though it had become pliable, and settled down again rigidly to its work of cleaving the smooth surface of the sea.