"Something is shelling us," whispered McKay. "When orders come, go instantly to your boat and your station." "I don't want to go alone." "The nurses of the unit to which you--" The crash of a shell drowned his voice. Then came a deathly silence, then the sound of the deck-guns in action once more. Miss Erith was leaning rather heavily on his arm. He bent it, drawing her closer. "I don't want to leave you," she said again. "I told you--" "It isn't that.... Don't you understand that I have become--your friend?" "Such a brute as I am?" "I like you." In the silence he could hear his heart drumming between the detonations of the deck-guns. He said: "It's because you are you. No other woman on earth but would have loathed me... beastly rotter that I was--" "Oh-h, don't," she breathed.... "I don't know--we may be very close to death.... I want to live. I'd like to. But I don't really mind death. ... But I can't bear to have things end for you just as you've begun to live again--" Crash! Something was badly smashed on deck that time, for the brazen jar of falling wreckage seemed continuous. Through the metallic echo she heard her voice: "Kay! I'm afraid--a little." "I think it's all right so far. Listen, there go our guns again. It's quite all right, Eve dear." "I didn't know I was so cowardly. But of course I'll never show it when the time comes." "Of course you won't. Don't worry. Shells make a lot of noise when they explode on deck. All that tinpan effect we heard was probably a ventilator collapsing--perhaps a smokestack." After a silence punctured by the flat bang of the deck-guns: "You ARE cured, aren't you, Kay?" "Yes." She repeated in a curiously exultant voice: "You ARE cured. All of a sudden--after that black crisis, too, you wake up, well!" "You woke me." "Of course, I did--with those guns frightening me!" "You woke me, Eve," he repeated coolly, "and my dream had already cured me. I am perfectly well. We'll get out of this mess shortly, you and I. And--and then--" He paused so long that she looked up at him in the bluish dusk: "And what then?" she asked. He did not answer. She said: "Tell me, Kay." But as his lips unclosed to speak a terrific shock shook the saloon--a shock that seemed to come from the depths of the ship, tilt up the cabin floor, and send everybody reeling about. Through the momentary confusion in the bluish obscurity the cool voice of an officer sounded unalarmed, giving orders. There was no panic. The hospital units formed and started for the deck. A young officer passing near exchanged a calm word with McKay, and passed on speaking pleasantly to the women who were now moving forward. McKay said to Miss Erith: "It seems that we've been torpedoed. We'll go on deck together. You know your boat and station?" "Yes." "I'll see you safely there. You're not afraid any more, are you?" "No."