But he kept his distance--he kept his distance.

He wanted me to know he had kept his distance; that there was nothing in common between him and these men--who had the hammer.

Nothing whatever.

It is more than probable he thought himself cut off from them by a space that could not be traversed, by an obstacle that could not be overcome, by a chasm without bottom.

He was as far as he could get from them--the whole breadth of the ship.
'His feet were glued to that remote spot and his eyes to their indistinct group bowed together and swaying strangely in the common torment of fear.