Others played cards, chess, draughts, anything that would distract attention.
The stately apartment offered strange contrast to the warring elements without.

Bright lights, costly upholstery, soft carpets, carved panels and gilded cornices, with uniformed attendants passing to and fro carrying coffee and glasses--these surroundings suggested a floating palace in which the raging seas were defied.

Yet forty miles away, somewhere in the furious depths, four corpses swirled about with horrible uncertainty, lurching through battling currents, and perchance convoyed by fighting sharks.
The surgeon had been called away.

Iris was the only lady left in the saloon.

She watched a set of whist players for a time and then essayed the perilous passage to her stateroom.