Page 54 (1/2)

Walker, in his brief catalogue of occupations, had suppressed one To

ht bulkhead door which cut off

the principal staterooms from the saloon Then he and his two helpers

carried out a painful but necessary task It was his duty to certify

whether or not life was extinct There were very few exceptions The

three men lifted the bodies and threw them overboard When they reached

the corpses of the second officer and a Spanish engineer who had been

knifed in the defense of the jolly-boat--his comrade had scrambled into

one of the life-boats--Tollemache took possession of such money,

docu to draw up

an inventory when an opportunity presented itself

Though they knew not thecrash would herald the

final dissolution of the ship, they proceeded with their work

methodically In half an hour they had reached the end All the injured

men--seven nondescript sailors and firemen--were carried to the saloon

and placed under Christobal's care Walker dived below to the

engine-room, where he had already disconnected the rods broken or bent by

the fracture of a guard ring, which, in its turn, was injured by the

blowing out of a junk-ring, a stout ring of forged steel secured to one