S.O.S. Titanic Read Online Free PDF Page A

against his face, too.
    Behind him he heard Scollins's voice. "What do you think you're doing, young man, dashing off like that? You heard me promise your grandmother that I'd keep an eye on you."
    "I'm not going to jump ship," Barry said. "Believe me, you're not going to lose me."
Unless Jonnie Flynn finds me,
he thought.
    Scollins's face was the strange gray-white of blotting paper and there was a sheen on it as if he'd just shined it up with a soft duster.
    "Suppose ... suppose..." Scollins seemed to be having trouble keeping his thoughts together. "Does it seem rather warm in here?" he asked.
    "No," Barry said. "It seems just right."
    "I think perhaps that food was a little rich for me," Scollins said. "I must remember to be more moderate." He took out his watch, glanced at it, and said, "At any rate, we should turn in. It has been rather a long day." He eased a finger inside his starched collar."Do you fancy a breath of sea air first?"
    "Fine." They went back up the stairs and Barry pushed open the doors that led onto the wide boat deck. He and Mr. Scollins stood in the shadow of one of the high-slung lifeboats, feeling the cold, cold North Atlantic wind cutting through their jackets and shirts, through their skin to the shivering bones. The sea was calm and black, except close to the ship, where the lights shone on the surface, turning it to bottle green. The sky blazed with stars. Barry pointed upward. "Gemini—Heavenly Twins," he said. "I've never seen them so bright."
    Scollins rubbed his hands along his arms. "Perhaps we should move before we freeze where we stand." He strode along the deck, wavering a little, as if he felt the roll of the
Titanic;
though up here in the open air Barry felt no movement at all. There was only that throb beneath their feet.
    Music was coming from somewhere, happy, dancing music, and voices, too, singing and laughing. The farther Barry and Scollins walked, the louder the music got.
    "The steerage passengers must be having a party," Mr. Scollins said. "Let's turn back."
    "Oh, I'd like to have a look," Barry said. Scollins might have been rented to keep an eye on him, but that didn't mean he could order Barry around, did it?
    "Oh, very well. Just for a minute, then."
    They leaned on the railing at the stern of the ship, looking down onto the deck below. It was a steerage party. A man sat on the bulkhead, playing an accordion. He wore a soft felt hat with a feather in the side, and his shirt was buttoned to the neck. A pipe smoked in his mouth and the wind carried the smell of it toward them; carried the music that squeezed out between his hands, sweet and filled with memories.
    Beside him a girl stood playing a mouth organ, one foot in its black boot tapping out the rhythm. Barry saw the breeze blow a mass of red hair, and the black shawl tied around her waist. Pegeen Flynn! But where were her brothers? He looked for them in the crowd and couldn't find them.
    "Down there is what's called the poop deck," Scollins said in his know-it-all manner. "Very small. But what can you expect? It only costs thirty-five pounds from Ireland to New York if you're willing to go steerage."
    "Or
have
to go steerage," Barry said. He leaned farther out.
    The music had quickened now. It was the kind you heard at celebrations back home. The small space below them swarmed with dancers. Skirts and shawls billowed. Sleeves ballooned. Boots thumped. There was laughter, and words called out in a language he couldn't understand—Swedish, maybe, or German. He knew the Irish words, though, and there were plenty of them. There was singing and he knew the song:
Have you ever been in love, me boys, and have you felt the pain?
    I'd rather be in jail myself than be in love again.
    For the girl I loved was beautiful, I want you all to know,
    And I met her in the garden where the praties grow.
    Barry wished he was down there singing along with them.
    "I really don't feel well at all," Scollins said. "I think..." He put his