"ArkCovenantPart5" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacClure Victor)

ahead. Steadily, steadily, as we sped into the dawn, the light paled into silver
and primrose, the floor of the sea passed from dull blue into a living purple
flecked with green and silver. Minutes passed, the hand of the clock on the
control-board dragging heavily, and again I felt that curious alertness of
perception which I had experienced on and after the flight of the day before. It
was more than alertness. It was an anticipation of things that were about to
happen.
And now, with the coming of the light, visibility decreased as a haze began to
grow over the face of the sea. We dropped on a long angle to fifteen hundred
metres. Here and there, the sea was dotted with steamers which, though visible
to us, must have been out of sight of each other. These we could see were
freighters and small liners.
All three of us in the cabin of the Merlin were staring ahead, expecting to
sight the great mass of the Parnassic at any moment, for the time was now well
past five o'clock. As far as one could judge, we were nearing the position where
the liner could be expected, but the haze below us was thickening quickly and,
every minute, was lessening our range of vision. Soon it would mean casting
circles in search.
Suddenly Milliken touched me lightly on the shoulder and pointed. Ahead of us,
four masts and three funnels pierced the mist. I throttled down and whipped into
the silencer, then hovered down into a steep angle. We were over the ship in a
few seconds.
"There's something the matter there, Mr. Boon," said Milliken. "There's no way
on her, and she's rolling broadside on."
"My God!" cried Dan Lamont. "She has been abandoned!"



A Close Shave
THERE was something terrifying in the helplessness of the great liner. Broadside
to the rollers, she lay sluggishly, swaying and veering amongst the oily
hummocks, and about her was the silence of death itself. Not a soul stirred on
her decks, and the thin wisp of steam that curled from one of her smoke-stacks
was the only thing about her that moved.
I know that my hands were shaking on the joystick, and it was all I could do to
master the sick feeling that was creeping over me. We circled round her as
slowly as we could, and coming as close as we dared.
"Look!" I said. "There are dead men lying on the bridge!"
"God in Heaven!" Dan Lamont cried, white to the lips. "What can have happened to
them?"
"I don't know," I muttered, "but we'll find out."
I swung the Merlin closer still to the liner.
"What are you going to do, sir?" Milliken cried apprehensively.
"I am going to put the Merlin aboard her, if I can."
"You'll smash her, sir!"
"Maybe," I said madly, "but we're going aboard."
"Don't try it sir! For God's sake, don't try it!"
"Shut up! Milliken!" I said crossly--then realizing that he wasn't thinking of
his own skin, but of his beloved Merlin, I grinned at him feebly. "It's all
right, Milliken, I won't do anything rash. Let's reconnoitre."