Free The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico

where the staircase had been. 'Tony!' she cried, 'Where is she? We've got to go to her! Which way?'
    The Beamer was suddenly helpless. 'Look here, old girl, you must get hold of yourself. You see -- I'm afraid . . .' He looked over to Scott for assistance.
    The girl cried, 'Don't just stand there staring at me that way! Why don't you tell me? How do I get to her?'
    But by then she already knew the answer and buried her face in The Beamer's shoulder as Scott said, 'I'm sorry, but you must all surely know by now. Everyone who was above this dining-room is now below the waterline. None of them can be alive any longer.'
    James Martin felt nausea swimming up and managed to turn himself away from the group before he fell to his knees once more and was violently sick again. For the first time he had thought of Mrs Lewis who had said she would not be coming down to dinner.
    'God,' said The Beamer, 'I could do with a drink!'
    Rogo had one more violent outburst, 'Jesus Christ!' he yelled at Scott. 'You mean everybody's dead except us? But it's all crazy, this upside-down! It's all crazy! You're crazy! You don't even know how to get us off this floor.'
    'Oh yes, I do,' said the Reverend Dr Frank Scott.

CHAPTER V
    The Christmas Tree

    'The tree there!' Scott said, 'Give me a hand.' He called up to Peters, 'We want to get to you. If we push the tree up, can you hold it?'
    Peters replied, 'I was going to suggest that, sir. We've a deckhand and a couple of kitchen staff here. If you can swing the tip up to us, we can manage.'
    They had all but forgotten the incongruity of the big Christmas tree. It lay now almost at the feet of Scott's group, the bottom at an angle partly screening the space where the top of the grand staircase had been.
    'What do you want to do?' Shelby asked.
    'Use it to get up there,' Scott said. 'You fellows had better make yourselves more comfortable. It's going to be heavy.'
    Shelby pulled at his black bow tie and opened the collar of his shirt. The others followed, with the exception of Martin, who was still on his knees, holding his head and retching. Somewhere below that stink of oil and water that he had seen, Mrs Lewis with her big, pneumatic bosom and her scented hair which had given him both such excitement and comfort, was floating suspended in her water-filled, luxury cabin or lying wedged and drowned in the bed that they had shared.
    'We'll swing the heavy end around first,' Scott said and the six men went to dispose themselves for the job. They were joined by Susan and Robin.
    Jane Shelby wanted to help too, but her husband murmured to her, 'Save your strength. God only knows what we're going to find when we get up there, if we do, or how it's going to be.'
    Unbroken ornaments and bits of tinsel tinkled musically as they worked the butt around until it lay parallel to the ship's side, with the tip just beneath the opening above.
    Scott ranged his crew along its length; himself with his great height and strength in the middle, then Rogo, Muller and The Beamer at intervals, with Shelby, Rosen and the two youngsters at the back to push.
    'Now, walk it up,' he said. 'When I lift, get it on to your shoulders. Dick, you heave.' He lifted the trunk of the tree, some four inches thick at that point, on to his shoulders and said, 'Now walk! Push, Dick!'
    The top of the tree began to rise and slide up the wall of the dining-saloon, towards the opening above from which Peters, lying on his stomach, was waiting to grasp it.
    At the far end of the hall, the other passengers watched them dumbly and offered no help. They were paralysed by their own indecision and looked upon what was going on as a kind of madness.
    'I ain't got any more breath!' Rosen gasped.
    'Manny, you'll hurt yourself!' Belle cried.
    'Come on, fellow, push!' said Shelby and wondered how his fifty-year-old back muscles, unused to anything more strenuous than swinging a mashie, would stand up under the strain.
    Scott turned his head over his shoulder to