The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico Read Free Book Online Page A

terror had rendered her grotesque.
    Rogo wished that Father Haggerty were there. He was uncertain of prayers conducted by any but a priest of his own faith. He compromised by crossing himself.
    They became aware of Mr Kyrenos, the Third Engineer, who too, had managed to rise. He was a short, undistinguished man, except for a scrubby moustache and dark, plaintive Greek eyes. He had been eating lobster. It was now all down his stiff, white shirt-front, the shell caught up absurdly on one of his studs.
    He said, 'Excuse me, please, I must go down to my engine room. Stay here. You will be perfectly safe. Someone will came. I must go down, they will be needing me there.' He got up, ran over to the black pooi where the grand staircase had been and fell in, where he thrashed and splashed and shouted for help.
    Mike Rogo tried to go to his assistance saying, 'Where the hell did he think he was going?' But his wife clung to him screaming, 'No, no! Don't leave me!' He tried to free himself but she slid down his body and clutched his leg with both arms.
    By the time he had extricated himself, Mr Kyrenos had stopped calling. The handrails rising out of the water were too slippery to give him a grip. The oil he swallowed probably had as much to do with killing him as drowning. He sank and did not came up again.
    Martin crawled away from the edge of the pit on his hands and knees until he had reached the others. He then lay prone amidst the debris of the ceiling-floor and buried his head in his arms.
    Muller, standing slightly apart, still holding the handkerchief on which were the red spots from Miss Kinsale's lip, made the effort to bend his mind to accept what he was seeing and hearing. It was not made easier by the incongruity of dinner-jackets and evening frocks. He was able to accept the enormity of the disaster: We have turned over. And then, But what the hell am I going to do? The fact that he thought in terms of 'I' rather than 'we' was characteristic; the turning of his smooth, comfortable, easy-going world upside-down was deeply resented by Hubert Muller.
    His thoughts were broken into by the powerful voice of Scott concluding his strange orisons: 'Don't worry, Lord, we've got the guts. We'll do our best.' He arose and taking Miss Kinsale's elbow helped her to do the same.
    A voice from above their heads said, 'Mr Scott, sir! Mrs Shelby! Mrs Rosen, are you all right?'
    They all looked up and for one ridiculous moment The Beamer, in his unaccustomed sobriety, wondered whether the American Minister was being answered from on high. But it was only Acre the steward talking to them from the service entry which led out from the various pantries and wine rooms en route to the kitchens, but which was now a full storey above their heads. He seemed to be lying on the floor, his partner Peters kneeling at his side.
    'Acre!' Rosen called out, 'What are you doing up there? What's it all about?'
    Acre replied, 'She's capsized, sir. Turned right over.'
    'I thought you said it couldn't.'
    The implications were still not clear. Shelby said, 'What do you mean, turned over?'
    Acre replied, 'I don't know, sir. Something rolled her right over.'
    Some note in the steward's voice must have reached Jane Shelby's ear, for she called up, 'Are you all right, Acre?'
    He replied, 'I've broken a leg, madam.'
    'Oh, Acre!' cried Jane, 'Can't anyone do anything?'
    'I imagine someone will come along in a minute or so, ma'am.'
    'And you, Peters?' Scott queried.
    'I'm all right, sir,' the second steward replied. Then he asked, 'What's become of Mr Kyrenos?'
    Mike Rogo said, 'He flipped! He said he had to go down to the engine room. He fell in there,' and nodded his head in the direction of the grand staircase.
    As if to punctuate, with a gurgling rumble another foul-smelling bubble burst like a geyser from the centre of the pool, heaving a mass of oil and water upwards in which they caught a momentary glimpse of arms and legs before it fell back and the surface