The dining saloon was deserted except by a few old sea-travelers. Before
dinner, Leo ventured above and for a moment put his head outside. The
gale blowing a hundred miles an hour hit him with the force of a club.
When he went below to see Alfonso, his face was pale, and his voice
trembled as he said, "Harris, before morning we shall all sink to the
bottom of the Atlantic with the 'Majestic' for our tomb." Half undressed,
Leo dropped again into his berth where he spent a miserable night.
CHAPTER VI
HALF-AWAKE, HALF-ASLEEP
Few persons find life enjoyable in a great storm at sea, for the
discomfitures of mind and body are many. The ship's officers and crew are
always concerned about the welfare of the passengers and the safety
of steamer and cargo.
True, Leo, with the instincts of an artist, had stood for hours on the
deck, partially sheltered by a smoke-stack, to study wave motions and the
ever-changing effects of the ocean. Never before had he known its
sublimity. When the sea was wildest and the deck was wave-swept, he in
his safe retreat made sketches of waves and their combinations which he
hoped sometime to reproduce on canvas. At other times, conscious of storm
dangers in mid-ocean, Leo's conscience troubled him.
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