Question

Read the passage:

All at once I imagined I saw shoal water ahead! The wave of coward agony that surged through me then came near dislocating every joint in me. All my confidence in that crossing vanished. I seized the bell-rope; dropped it, ashamed; seized it again; dropped it once more; clutched it tremblingly once again, and pulled it so feebly that I could hardly hear the stroke myself.

Which detail from the passage helps the reader understand the strength of the narrator's emotions?



All at once I imagined I saw shoal water ahead!


The wave of coward agony that surg