It is true I am disappointed in not having been able to have saved Lady Ruth, but so long as some one took her from the water, what does it matter?
The boatmen are mad, because they lost a craft.
Jove! I'd like to teach them a lesson for taking out passengers in a cranky, rotten boat.

Do you know, I believe my foot went clean through the bottom when I jumped up." This, spoken in a frank, ingenuous way, quite disarms John.
He does not like to think evil of his fellow human beings, at any rate.
The wind is increasing meanwhile, and clouds hide the young moon.
"I believe we will have a storm," is the last remark Sir Lionel makes, as he staggers across the rising deck and makes a plunge down into the cabin, for although a duck in the water, the Briton is no yachtsman, and possibly already feels the terrible grip of the coming _mal de mer_.
His words are soon verified, however, for the waves and wind continue to rise until the steamer is mightily buffeted.

Still John remains on deck.
There is a fascination for him in the scene that words cannot express.
When he has had enough he will find his state-room and sleep, for surely he needs it after being awake a good deal of the preceding night at Valetta.
Darker grow the heavens.

Thunder rolls, and the electric current cuts the air, illuminating the wild scene with a picturesque touch that is almost ghastly in its yellow white.
The steamer is well built, and in good condition to withstand the tempest, roar as it may.

John tires of the weird spectacle at last, and he, too, makes a plunge for the cabin, reaching it just in time to escape a monster wave that makes the vessel stagger, and sweeps along the deck from stem to stern.
Below he finds considerable confusion, such as is always seen on board a steamer during a storm.