He suffered greatly, but steadily declined all my offers of attention, and pertinaciously refused to leave his cabin.
To-day, an acrid, nauseating smoke made its way through the panellings that partition off the quarters of the crew.

At once Curtis ordered the partition to be enveloped in wet tarpaulin, but the fumes penetrated even this, and filled the whole neighbourhood of the ship's bows with a reeking vapour that was positively stifling.

As we listened, too, we could hear a dull rumbling sound, but we were as mystified as ever to comprehend where the air could have entered that was evidently fanning the flames.

Only too certainly, it was now becoming a question not of days nor even of hours before we must be prepared for the final catastrophe.

The sea was still running high, and escape by the boats was plainly impossible.