the station at Cape Race intercepted the talk of the _Titanic_ 270 miles away, and flashed the message out far and wide; so that Government tugs and ships with steam up in harbours, and everything afloat in the vicinity which heard the news might hurry to the rescue. Cape Race soon heard that the _Virginian_ was on her way to the _Titanic’s_ position, then that the _Olympic_ and _Carpathia_ had altered their courses and were making for the wounded ship, and so on. Throughout the night the rumours in the air were busy, while still the steady calls came out in firm electric waves from the _Titanic_—still calling, still flashing “C.Q.D.” At 1.20 she whispered to the _Olympic_, “Get your boats ready; going down fast by the head.” At 1.35 the _Frankfurt_ (after an hour and a half’s delay) said, “We are starting for you.” Then at 1.41 came a message to the _Olympic_, “C.Q.D., boilers flooded.” “Are there any boats round you already?” asked the _Olympic_, but there was no answer. Other ships began to call, giving encouraging messages: “We are coming,” said the _Birma_, “only fifty miles away”; but still there was no answer. All over the North Atlantic men in lighted instrument rooms sat listening with the telephones at their ears; they heard each other’s questions and waited in the silence, but it was never broken again by the voice from the _Titanic_. “All quiet now,” reported the _Birma_ to the _Olympic_, and all quiet it was, except for the thrashing and pounding of a score of propellers, and the hiss of a dozen steel stems as they ripped the smooth waters on courses converging to the spot where the wireless voice had suddenly flickered out into silence. But of all those who had been listening to the signals Captain Rostron of the _Carpathia_ knew that his ship would most likely be among the first to reach the spot. It was about midnight on Sunday that the passengers of the _Carpathia_ first became aware that something unusual was happening. The course had been changed and a certain hurrying about on the decks took the place of the usual midnight quiet. The trembling and vibration increased to a quick jumping movement as pressure of steam was gradually increased and the engines urged to the extreme of their driving capacity. The chief steward summoned his staff and set them to work making sandwiches and preparing hot drinks. All the hot water was cut off from the cabins and bath-rooms, so that every ounce of steam could be utilized for driving the machinery.