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Another leap toward the steamer resulted in the ship's maintopgallantmast falling in a zigzag whirl, as the snapping gear aloft impeded it; and dropping athwart the steamer's funnel, it neatly sent the royal-yard with sail attached down the iron cylinder, where it soon blazed and helped the artificial draft in the stoke-hold. Next came the foretopgallantmast, which smashed a couple of boats.
"Ahoy there, forrad!" he shouted in stentorian tones that rang fore and aft like a trumpet. "Bo'sun, send the hands aft." "Say, cap'en," sang out Mr Fosset from the bridge, "shall I call up the fellows down below in the stoke-hold, sir?" "Aye. Ring the engine-room gong. I want every man-jack on deck that Mr Stokes can spare; tell him so."
"Mr Stoddart directed me to tell the cap'en that he may go on ahead as usual, as he likes, for everything has been made taut and secure below and there need be no fear of another mishap. He says he intends driving the engines as they were never driven before, and he has put every fireman and oiler in the stoke-hold on the job."
"The cylinder is all right again and will bear any pressure now, and I tell you what it is, the old barquey shall steam along in pursuit of those demons faster than she ever went in her life since she was launched and engined!" "I am with you there, old fellow," said Grummet, our third engineer, hastening towards the stoke-hold.
Meantime he was stripped to the waist and armed with a shovel in the stoke-hold." Benton laughed. "There was another phase to it, though " began the boy afresh. At that moment the whistle of the small excursion steamer below broke out in a shrill scream. Young Harcourt hurriedly pushed back his chair and grabbed for his Panama hat. "Cæsar!" he cried, "there's the whistle.
"You seed the ghost-ship, Mr Haldane, the same as me, for I saw it, that I did!" "Accident in the stoke-hold!" repeated the skipper, who of course did not overhear the old boatswain's aside to me. "Accident in the stoke- hold!" again repeated the skipper; "anybody hurt?" "Yes, sir," replied the first mate in the same grave tone of voice. "Mr Stokes and two of the firemen." "Seriously?"
Slings were formed of ropes, and those men in whom any signs of life were visible were the first to be lifted to the upper deck. The stoke-hold was quickly emptied of its inanimate occupants; living and dead alike were carried to the untenanted second-class saloon forward.
The door of one furnace was blown clean out of its bolts; furnace bars and fire-bricks strewed the iron deck, while, each time the ship rolled, the heavy clank of loose metal somewhere in the engine-room proved that the damage was not confined solely to the stoke-hold.
Mr Fosset and I helped up Blanchard, the other fireman, he, luckily, not requiring to be carried; and we then went down for Mr Stokes, who had refused to leave the stoke-hold until his men had been attended to.
"Humph, that's serious," answered the skipper meditatively. "I'll see what I can do to help you. I say, Fosset?" "Aye, aye, sir! Want me?" "Yes," replied the skipper. "Mr Stokes is shorthanded below and says the bilge-pumps are choked. Can you spare him a man or two to help clear the suctions? I daresay there's a lot of stray dunnage washing about under the stoke-hold plates.
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