Page:Restless Earth.djvu/73
The whisperings filled Harley with a desire to fight the rumours with his hands.
“Stop it, for God’s sake!” he snarled, turning upon a lank individual in flannels who stood at his elbow.
The lank individual, under the impression that Harley thus vehemently expressed his abhorrence of the gum-chewing habit, ceased his noisy mastication to remark that he presumed the country to be a free one.
Harley muttered under his breath and returned to his reading of the bulletins. The lank individual masticated defiantly, and edged out of the crowd prudently.
H.M.S. Veronica, Napier Wharf: 2.35: Much medical assistance required. Town wrecked and fires raging.
As he read, Harley’s every hurrying heartbeat cried the name of the little woman whom he loved better than he knew. Grace! Grace! Grace! . .
H.M.S. Diomede and H.M.S. Dunedin are ordered to proceed immediately from Auckland with stores and medical supplies, and are expected to reach Napier to-morrow.
Harley pictured the two cruisers racing at their highest speed; black, flattened smoke streaming aft; roaring walls of water rising at the impact of knife-like bows; officers, grim-lipped, snapping orders; physicians, vested with brief power, giving instructions to nurses and bluejackets alike.
The Navy was out! Harley thanked God for so much. Already the Veronica, by a lucky chance, tied to the Napier Wharf only a few minutes before the shake, was rendering valuable assistance to the injured and the homeless, and to-morrow the whole area would be under efficient control.
The Veronica reported about 3 o’clock that the damage was so great that they could not give any idea of the damage.