CHAPTER XVII
A STRANGE VISION
Captain Wiggs was not built on speed lines. He was short and squatty,and inclined to be fat. But the way in which he hustled about as soon ashe heard what the sailor said was sufficient to qualify him to enter ago-as-you-please race of almost any kind.
With a few jumps he was at the companionway leading below, and, as hewent the boys could hear him call out:
"Ring the fire alarm! Every man to his station! Someone tell the pilotto slow down! Signal to the engineer to get the pumps in gear!"
Nor were the members of the crew slow to carry out the commander'sinstructions. One man rang the automatic fire alarm, that sounded inevery part of the vessel. Another hurried to the bridge, where hedelivered the message about stopping the boat. The _Modoc_ at once beganto lose way and, a moment later, the vibration from the engine roomtold the boys that the pumps had been started.
"Let's go below and see if we can help," suggested Bart, and the fourchums went down in a hurry. They found men dragging lines of hoseforward where little curls of smoke began coming from an open hatchway.
"Drown her out, men!" cried the captain. "It'll be all day with us ifthe flames get loose in that dry freight!"
Several of the men, dragging the snaky lines of hose, dropped down intothe hold. They called for water, and the captain signalled for it to beturned on. The flat hose bulged out like a snake after a full meal, anda splashing sound from below told that the quenching fluid was gettingin its work.
"Can we do anything?" asked Fenn, as he saw Captain Wiggs taking off hiscoat and donning oil skins.
"Not now, I guess. You might stand by for orders though. There's notelling into what this will develope."
It was getting quite smoky below, and the hold, down into which thecommander had disappeared, was pouring out a volume of black vapor.
"Tell 'em to send another line of hose!" came a voice from below, andFenn hurried to the engineer's room with the order.
Several men sprang at once to obey. The hose was unreeled from a rack onthe partition, and run out to the hold. Then the engineer startedanother pump, that had been held in reserve.
There were now three lines of hose pouring water on the flames, whichthe boys could not see. That the blaze was not succumbing so quickly ashad been hoped for, was evident by the shouts and excitement that camefrom the depths of the ship.
"Tell 'em to give us more water!" yelled the captain to the boys waitingabove.
Frank rushed with the order, glad to escape the smoke, which wasmomentarily growing thicker.
"Tell him he's got all the water I can give him!" shouted the engineer,above the noise of the clanking machinery. "One of the pumps has goneout of commission!"
Frank shouted what the engineer had said to Captain Wiggs, below in thedarkness.
"Then we've got to batten down the hatches and turn live steam into thishold!" was what the commander called back. "Tell him to get up a goodhead!"
Frank did so. When he returned Captain Wiggs was just making his way outof the hold. He was black, and smoke-begrimed, while he dripped waterfrom every point of his yellow garments.
"Is there any danger?" asked Ned.
"There always is with a fire aboard a ship," answered the commander."But I think we'll be able to hold her down if we get plenty of steam.Come on up, men," he added, and the sailors scrambled up. They lookedmore like colored, than white men.
Captain Wiggs acted quickly. When the last man was up, the hatches, orcoverings to the hold, were fastened down, and tarpaulins, wet withwater, to make them air tight, were spread over the top. Then, frompipes which ran into the hold from below, and which were for use inemergency, jets of live steam were blown into the compartment.
This, the commander knew, would penetrate to every nook and corner,reaching where water could not, and would soon quench the flames.
"Now, all we can do is to wait," said the captain, as he sat down, forhe was almost exhausted.
That was the hardest part of all. When one can be busy at something,getting out of danger, or fighting a fire that can be seen, the nervousfear is swallowed up in action. But to sit and wait--wait for theunseen steam to do its work,--that was very trying.
Still there was no help for it. Captain Wiggs looked to the other partof the cargo, seeing that there was no danger of that taking fire. Theforward hold was separated from the others by thick bulkheads, and therewas little chance of the fire breaking through. The hull of the _Modoc_was of steel, and, provided the fire did not get hot enough to warp anyof the plates, there was small danger to the ship itself.
"We'll have to head for shore, in case it becomes necessary to break outthe cargo," decided the captain, as he went on deck. "Come on, boys. Wecan do nothing now, and we want to get some of this smoke out of ourlungs."
The course of the ship was changed. Captain Wiggs got out his charts andlooked them over.
"Where will we land?" asked Fenn.
"Not much of anywhere," was the reply. "There is no good harbor thisside of Duluth, but I've got to do the best I can. There is a littlebay, about opposite here. There's no settlement near it, but Iunderstand there's a good shore, and I'm going to make for it, in casethis fire gets beyond my control."
Urged on by all the steam the engines could take, though much was neededfor the fire, the vessel plowed ahead.
"Land ho!" called the lookout, and the captain, taking an observation,announced they were close to the bay of which he had spoken. When it wasreached it was found to be a secluded harbor, with nothing in sight onthe shores of it save a few old huts, that appeared to be deserted.
"Not a very lively place," commented the captain. "Still, it will do allright if we have to land the cargo."
The anchor was dropped and then all there was to do was to wait for thefire to be extinguished.
The boys remained on deck, looking at the scenery about them. Back ofthe bay, rising almost from the edge of the water, were a series ofsteep cliffs, of bare rock for the most part, but studded, here andthere, with clumps of bushes and small trees, that somehow, found alodgement for their roots on little ledges.
"It's a lonesome sort of place," remarked Fenn. "Not a soul withinsight."
Hardly had he spoken than there was seen on the face of the cliff, asif by a trick, the figure of a man. He seemed to come out, as does amagic-lantern picture on a sheet, so quickly did he appear where,before, there had been nothing but bare brown rock.
"Look!" exclaimed Fenn, pointing.
"A Chinaman!" exclaimed Bart. "One of the smugglers!"
The boys jumped to their feet, and approached closer to the ship's rail,to get a better view.
As they did so the Chinese vanished as though the cliff wall had openedand swallowed him up.
Fenn Masterson's Discovery; or, The Darewell Chums on a Cruise Page 17