All the impatience and languor were gone from him.

The moment had come.

He was at once steel to meet it.
"Yes," said Jose Medina, "we shall see nothing more now for a long while." They heard no sound in that still night; they saw no gleam of lights.

It seemed to Hillyard that aeons passed before Jose touched him on the elbow and pointed downwards.
"Look!" he whispered excitedly.
Right at their very feet the long, grim vessel lay, so near that Hillyard had the illusion he could pitch a stone on to the conning tower.

He now held his breath, lest his breathing should be heard.