Woman-like I gazed everywhere but in the right direction when I first gained the poop; but, observing some people on the other side of the deck to point with shadowy hands, I immediately beheld what resembled a globe of red fire upon the sea. It looked like a huge star setting red as blood. I could not imagine how far off it might be, nor, but for the stewardess’s information, should I have supposed it to be a ship on fire. I had expected to see a great conflagration, a wide space of the night sky crimsoned with forked and writhing tongues of flame, and I was disappointed; but after I had stood gazing for a few minutes alone, for there was nobody in that corner of the deck where I had planted myself, a feeling of dismay, of consternation, even of horror possessed me. I knew that the dark red globe burning upon the sea yonder was a ship on fire, and knowing this I imagined that there might be living people on board of the flaming mass. The whole spirit of the solitude of this mighty scene of night, beautiful as it was with moonlight and with starlight, seemed to be centred in that distant point of fire; and the thought of the helplessness of the people on board the flaming fabric amid so vast a field, their horrible loneliness, the awful despair which that loneliness must excite--this thought, and other thoughts which visited me from that distant mass of fire, presently grew so insupportable to the deep melancholy which was upon me and which had been upon me throughout the evening that I crossed the deck in the hope of finding Mrs. Lee, that I might forget something of myself in conversing with her.
But Mrs. Lee was not to be seen. She was in her berth, probably in bed, and they would not give her the news of the ship on fire for fear of disturbing her daughter. The passengers stood in groups, pointing to the burning vessel and speaking in tones of excitement. I went from one to another, gazing into their faces and receiving nods and enquiries as to what I thought of the ship on fire. Captain Ladmore walked the hinder part of the deck alone. But as there was nobody near him who resembled Mrs. Lee, I returned to that part of the deck where I had first stationed myself, being in no humour to mingle with the passengers on the other side.
