’"I saw as clearly as I see you now that there was nothing I could do.  It seemed to take all life out of my limbs.  I thought I might just as well stand where I was and wait.  I did not think I had many seconds. . . .”  Suddenly the steam ceased blowing off.  The noise, he remarked, had been distracting, but the silence at once became intolerably oppressive.

’"I thought I would choke before I got drowned,” he said.

’He protested he did not think of saving himself.  The only distinct thought formed, vanishing, and re-forming in his brain, was:  eight hundred people and seven boats; eight hundred people and seven boats.

’"Somebody was speaking aloud inside my head,” he said a little wildly.  “Eight hundred people and seven boats—­and no time!  Just think of it.”  He leaned towards me across the little table, and I tried to avoid his stare.  “Do you think I was afraid of death?” he asked in a voice very fierce and low.  He brought down his open hand with a bang that made the coffee-cups dance.  “I am ready to swear I was not—­I was not. . . .  By God—­no!” He hitched himself upright and crossed his arms; his chin fell on his breast.

’The soft clashes of crockery reached us faintly through the high windows.  There was a burst of voices, and several men came out in high good-humour into the gallery.  They were exchanging jocular reminiscences of the donkeys in Cairo.  A pale anxious youth stepping softly on long legs was being chaffed by a strutting and rubicund globe-trotter about his purchases in the bazaar.  “No, really—­do you think I’ve been done to that extent?” he inquired very earnest and deliberate.  The band moved away, dropping into chairs as they went; matches flared, illuminating for a second faces without the ghost of an expression and the flat glaze of white shirt-fronts; the hum of many conversations animated with the ardour of feasting sounded to me absurd and infinitely remote.

’"Some of the crew were sleeping on the number one hatch within reach of my arm,” began Jim again.

’You must know they kept Kalashee watch in that ship, all hands sleeping through the night, and only the reliefs of quartermasters and look-out men being called.  He was tempted to grip and shake the shoulder of the nearest lascar, but he didn’t.  Something held his arms down along his sides.  He was not afraid—­oh no! only he just couldn’t—­that’s all.  He was not afraid of death perhaps, but I’ll tell you what, he was afraid of the emergency.  His confounded imagination had evoked for him all the horrors of panic, the trampling rush, the pitiful screams, boats swamped—­all the appalling incidents of a disaster at sea he had ever heard of.  He might have been resigned to die but I suspect he wanted to die without added terrors, quietly, in a sort of peaceful trance.  A certain readiness to perish is not so very rare, but it is seldom that you meet men whose souls, steeled in the impenetrable