"Ram-zee!" cried the mother. But a toll of the great bell silenced her. Another solemnly followed, and when a third completed the signal to land, the staggering footsteps of the vanished girl dragging old Joy with her in full retreat were a relief to every ear. As madame turned to say good night a last bleat came out of the darkness: "Please don't, anybody, tell about the _Quakeress_ to-night!" XIV THE COMMITTEE OF SEVEN "Hitherto," said the senator, in his stateroom, to the bishop and the judge, "there really has been no need to take any assertive step." He was explaining his slowness as head of the deputation and was glad, he said, to have a word apart with these two. The room could not seat seven and for the moment the other four were at the bar, where standing was so much easier than elsewhere. Their business, the seven's, he added, was with the captain, and officially the captain had gone off duty at eight o'clock and was on again only now, at midnight, in the "middle watch." Even yet there need be no hurry; what they wanted done could not be done before early morning, at Prophet's Island. The bishop approved. "Don't cross the bridge till you get to it," he quoted. The judge--whose elderly maiden sister was aboard and abed but awake and alarmed and amazed and astounded that he should be so helpless--assented, too, but thought there was now no call for further delay; Prophet's Island was nearer every moment and the sooner "those people" were well ashore the safer--and easier--for everybody. "I was giving our numbers time to grow," remarked the senator. "And the cholera time to spread?" queried the judge. "We're but a small minority yet," persisted the senator. "A minority always rules," smilingly said the bishop. The senator smiled back. "There are two or three hundred of those deck passengers alone," he responded. "Senator," said the judge, "what of that? We've taken upon ourselves to speak for all the cabin passengers on this boat, whether as yet they agree with us or not. They are as numerous as those foreigners, sir, and, my God! sir, _they_ are our own people. Self-preservation is the first law!" "Oh, surely you know," protested the senator, "I'm with you, heart and soul! We must extricate these people of our own from a situation whose desperateness most of them do not recognize. We'll go to the captain now, as soon as--as we must. But let us agree right here that whatever we require him to do we also require him to do of his own free will. He must shift no responsibility upon us. You have, of your sort, bishop, a constituency quite as sensitive as the judge's or mine, and we don't want to give any one a chance to start a false story which we might find it difficult to run down. And so we can hardly be too careful----" The absent four had returned while he spoke. "Sir," interrupted the general, whose th's were getting thick, "ththat is what we have been--too careful!"