The Search for the Silver City Part 6

"How are things going on here?" he asked, forcing himself to speak in a cheerful tone. "Can you get any idea of the fire?"

"Put your hand on the deck," Teddy replied gravely, his face of a livid white although big drops of perspiration were streaming down his cheeks.

Neal obeyed, and immediately drew his hand back with a cry of mingled pain and fear.

The planks were already so hot that it seemed as if the flesh must be burned.

"Has father been here within a few moments?"

"He has just left."

"Did he say anything?"

"Nothing except that I was to come on deck when it was so hot I couldn't stand it any longer. Neal," and now Teddy spoke very earnestly, "you laughed when I referred to the possibility that the yacht might be destroyed; but I know your father thinks she cannot be saved."

"I believe now that he does; but I didn't when I left you. Everything is ready for us to abandon her when nothing more can be done."

"Are we to go in the small boats?" asked Teddy, excitedly.

"It is the only chance we've got; but don't look so frightened," he added, as Teddy's face grew yet paler. "It is calm, there's absolutely no sea at all running, and we shall be as safe as on board the yacht."

"It will be horrible," Teddy whispered as if to himself, and Neal added:

"I'll tell father what Jake said, and then come straight back to stay with you."

"Don't be away long. It seems as if I had been deserted, when there is no one here."

Neal could not trust himself to speak. Ascending the companion-way rapidly he approached his father who was conversing with Mr. Walters near the bow, as if that position had been chosen to prevent the crew from hearing what was said.

After repeating the engineer's message he asked:

"Can I go back where Teddy is? I think it frightens him to stay there alone."

"I can't say that I wonder very much; it is a very trying situation for a boy, especially one who has never been to sea before. Ask Jake if he will send a man to relieve him and then you may both come on deck."

To deliver this message and return after one of the firemen took Teddy's place at the nozzle, did not occupy five minutes, and the frightened boy gave vent to a long sigh of relief when he was in the open air once more.

Except for the heat the weather was perfect. The Sea Dream, showing no sign of the monster which was gnawing at her vitals, save by the clouds of smoke that ascended from the bow, dashed on like the thing of beauty she was; but when her flight should be checked there would remain nothing but the tiny boats to bear those on board to a place of safety.

CHAPTER VI.

THE LAST RESORT.

Mr. Emery and the sailing master had decided that the yacht should be kept at full speed, headed for the nearest land, until the water which was being pumped into the hold drowned the fires in the furnaces, when recourse must necessarily be had to the boats.

There could no longer be any question but that the entire forward portion of the hold was a ma.s.s of flames which it would not be possible to hold in check very much longer.

By this time all on board understood that the yacht was to be abandoned, and, with the exception of those in the engine-room and at the pumps, every one gazed as if fascinated at the clouds of smoke arising from near the bow. Already were tiny curls coming from between the deck planks, and Teddy heard Mr. Walters say in a low tone to Neal's father:

"I am afraid the flames will burst through before the furnaces are flooded. It is too late to cut another hole in the deck, and by an hour at the latest we must take to the boats."

"Have the crew been told off?"

"I will attend to that now."

Then the sailing master announced to each man the boat to which he was a.s.signed, and during the next hour hardly a word was spoken. Teddy and Neal conversed now and then in whispers, as if not daring to make a noise, and the sailors worked in grim silence.

Nothing save the clank of the pumps and the throbbing of the screw could be heard.

When the hour had pa.s.sed it was no longer possible to force water into the hold. The heat was so great that the hose burned as fast as it could be pushed through the aperture, and long tongues of flame were appearing around the edges of the hatch.

All hands, including the boys, were formed in line, and water sent below in buckets for twenty minutes more, when the word was given to slacken speed.

The lower deck had burst through, and there was no more than time for Jake and his a.s.sistants to clamber up the ladders before the flames had complete possession of the yacht from the bow to the engine-room companion-way.

There was no time to be lost in lowering the boats, and the men were forced to leap in regardless of the previous a.s.signment, for once the fire burst the bonds which had confined it so long it swept aft with almost incredible rapidity.

Teddy and Neal, bewildered by the flames which actually burned their flesh as they stood by the rail while the sailors let go the falls, had only thought of reaching the craft in which their property was stowed, and Jake followed; but as the little tenders were allowed to drop astern beyond reach of the intense heat the boys discovered that Mr. Emery was not with them.

He had charge of one boat; Mr. Walters commanded another; Jake was held responsible for the safety of the third, and the last was handled by the mate.

"Shall we come with you, father?" Teddy shouted.

"I don't think it will be advisable to make any change now, and you are as safe in one boat as another."

"I'll answer for them," Jake cried cheerily, and the sailing master added:

"Jake can handle a small boat better than any one here, therefore you need not fear an accident will result through carelessness."

"How am I to steer?" the engineer asked.

"Due west. The boats must remain together, and in each one is a lantern to be hung up during the night to lessen the chances of being separated.

Two men in every craft are to be kept at the oars all the time, and, in order to make the work light, they should be relieved hourly. The indications are that the weather will hold clear; it is only a couple of hundred miles to the Cuban coast, and we are not likely to be cooped up in these c.o.c.kle sh.e.l.ls very long."

As he ceased speaking Mr. Walters gave the word for the oarsmen to begin the work which it was supposed would be continued without intermission until all were in a place of safety, and the boats were pulled about a mile from the burning steamer, when, as if by common consent, they were brought to a standstill to watch the destruction of the Sea Dream.

The jaunty little craft was moving through the water slowly, enveloped in flames from bow to stern, and the boys gazed at her with a feeling of sadness which did not arise solely from the fact of their present peril.

It seemed to them as if she could understand that those who should have saved her had fled when her need of a.s.sistance was greatest, and she was creeping slowly away to die alone.

"The poor thing can't swim much longer," Jake said, as if speaking to himself. "The boiler will explode----"

Even as he spoke a black cloud of smoke shot up from amidships, followed by a shower of fiery fragments, some of which struck in the immediate vicinity of the boats, and then the glare of the conflagration suddenly vanished as the Sea Dream sank beneath the waves.

It would have been strange indeed if each member of the little party had not experienced a feeling of sorrow and desolation at this moment.