A few hardy spirits returned to bed.
Meanwhile, in the charthouse, the captain and chief officer were gravely pondering over an open chart, and discussing a fresh risk that loomed ominously before them.

The ship was a long way out of her usual course when the accident happened.

She was drifting now, they estimated, eleven knots an hour, with wind, sea, and current all forcing her in the same direction, drifting into one of the most dangerous places in the known world, the south China Sea, with its numberless reefs, shoals, and isolated rocks, and the great island of Borneo stretching right across the path of the cyclone.
Still, there was nothing to be done save to make a few unobtrusive preparations and trust to idle chance.

To attempt to anchor and ride out the gale in their present position was out of the question.
Two, three, four o'clock came, and went.

Another half-hour would witness the dawn and a further clearing of the weather.