They waited anxiously, but there was no sign given by the frail rope that they were to haul in again.

Then the upward movement continued.
"Chunk o' rock in the way," announced Coke, glaring round at the survivors as if to challenge contradiction.

No one answered.

These men were beginning to measure their lives against the life of the wedge of iron and timber kept in position by the crumbling frame of the ship.
It was a fast-diminishing scale.

The figures painted on the _Andromeda's_ bows represented minutes rather than feet.
Watts was lying crouched on deck, with his arms thrown round the windlass.