The hunters left the table and went on deck, and still we talked.

Wolf Larsen alone remained.
Suddenly I became aware of him, leaning back from the table and listening curiously to our alien speech of a world he did not know.
I broke short off in the middle of a sentence.

The present, with all its perils and anxieties, rushed upon me with stunning force.

It smote Miss Brewster likewise, a vague and nameless terror rushing into her eyes as she regarded Wolf Larsen.
He rose to his feet and laughed awkwardly.

The sound of it was metallic.
"Oh, don't mind me," he said, with a self-depreciatory wave of his hand.
"I don't count.