CHAPTER XVI
THE FIRE DRILL IN EARNEST
The sailor's cry of "Fire," the most dreaded that can rise at sea,disturbed Captain Tom Halstead's sound rest. He half awoke.
Then it sounded again:
"Fire!"
In prompt confirmation of the cry, the electric bell began ringing inhis room. Directly over it glowed an electric light in a red bulb--thefire signal to the cabin.
Tom Halstead fairly leaped from his bed. He got on all the clothingneeded with the speed of a fireman.
Dick Davis's hand had come, first, to the bell rousing the watch below.He rang that first, but Halstead's bell immediately afterward.
As Halstead burst open the door of his cabin the red glow was in hisface.
Down in the mates' and crew's quarters the fire-bell was ringingsteadily. Officers and men came tumbling up the stairs.
"Stand by the handling of the ship, Mr. Davis!" roared the youngcaptain from the deck. "I'll have men enough for the fighting of thefire."
As the first heads showed from below, Halstead roared:
"Mr. Perkins, the starboard hose. Mr. Costigan, the port! Two men eachand yourselves to a hose. The rest report to me."
The hose lay in butts from which they were lifted and fastened to thedeck hydrants. While one man was securing each hose to a hydrant, a mateand another sailor ran aft with the line along either rail.
"The rest of you get fire axes," shouted Captain Halstead. "Jump up ontothe bridge and go aft over the deck-house. Mr. Davis, instruct Mr.Prentiss to connect the pump in the engine room. Tell him to give usinstant pressure."
Though he had heard the fire call, Jed was too dependable to alloweither curiosity or fear to take him from his post. When the order came,through the speaking tube, young Prentiss was standing by, ready toconnect the pump with one of the motors.
Through the two lengths of hose the water leaped almost instantly.
Captain Tom had run with his axe-men over the deck-house.
He found the after deck ablaze, and also the sides of the deck-houseaft.
How it had all happened the young sailing master did not trouble himselfto ask, at first. It was more than enough for him to know that there wasa fire aboard, and to know where it was located.
"Get up close, Mr. Perkins and Mr. Costigan!" he shouted, from the topof the deck-house. "Let the flames have the water at full, directpressure. Steady, now! Throw in every drop of water where it will hitthe hottest, highest flames."
Seldom had fire-drill at sea been more promptly or intelligently carriedout. It was fortunate, at the very outset, that the blaze had started sonear the time for the changing of the watches. The men were rested andready for prompt rising.
The slight rolling of the boat carried gasoline along the decks, bearingthe flames with it. A pitching at the bow, slight though it was, broughtthese running streams of flame down upon the crews with the hose. Theyhad to depress the nozzles almost at their feet, in order to assurethemselves of safe standing room.
"Give me one of those axes," shouted Halstead, taking the implement froma sailor. "Now, two of you jump down aft with me on the deck. Nevermind the fire! Remember, we've got to fight it for our lives anyway!"
Down into the clearest spot he could find young Halstead leaped. AbPerkins, seeing him, turned the stream full on the blazing deck aroundthe young sailing master. That was all that saved Halstead fromperishing. The water kept the flames down so that he was able to layabout him, loosening several of the deck planks.
One of the sailors had landed close beside the young skipper. He, too,laid about him. The second seaman, however, ran over to the other sideof the deck-house, looking for some spot where he might work protectedby the other hose.
The hoarse shouting of orders, the running of feet overhead and thesharp, sinister hiss of water coming in contact with fire, all combinedto arouse the owner of the imperiled yacht.
Joseph Baldwin sprang from his bed, dashed aside the starboard curtains,and caught a reflection of the glow.
"Fire!" he gasped, turning pale. "Halstead and his comrades surely haveenough to handle this time."
Then, with frenzied haste, the owner fell to pulling on his clothes. He,too, broke some of his own records in the matter of dressing. In a veryfew moments he was outside, and climbing the bridge steps. Then hedashed aft.
The breeze that was blowing was unfavorable to the fire fighters. Thefactors in their favor, however, were the prompt discovery of thetrouble and the thinness with which the gasoline was spread.
The blaze was at its worst in the middle of the after deck. It was therealization of this fact that had caused young Captain Halstead to takethe desperate leap and make the bold effort that now stood to hiscredit.
"That boy has no sense of fear," cried Mr. Baldwin to himself.
As a matter of fact, Halstead had escaped unscorched. His promptness,good judgment, and the protecting streams from the hose had saved himfrom disastrous consequences that might be expected to follow such ahazardous act.
By now the hosemen were able to get far enough aft to wet down theblazing parts of the wall of the after deck-house.
Within five minutes from the time it started the blaze was brought downto where it required only persistent hosing to drown it completely.
From time to time a sudden gust of the light breeze fanned up the firebriefly at some point, but the fire fighters no longer feared for theirsafety.
Mr. Ross and Dr. Gray had been aroused by the sounds of fire-fighting;the others in the cabin staterooms slept on, for Dick Davis had wiselyrefrained from touching the button that would have sounded the heavygong in the main cabin.
"How could the thing have started!" asked Mr. Ross, bewilderedly.
"It was set, by someone," replied Tom Halstead, joining Mr. Baldwin andthe latter's friends. "It was a gasoline blaze, pure and simple."
"Who could have----" began Dr. Gray.
"I saw myself that the prisoner was safely locked in," broke in theyoung skipper. "Yet he's the only one I could suspect."
Almost at a run Halstead started forward, followed by Ab Perkins.
Down below, these two investigators found the door of the brig open. Thelock had been picked. On the floor of the brig Tom found what was leftof a steel table fork such as the crew used.
"He forced the tines and shank out of the handle, and worked it overinto a pick-lock," muttered the young skipper. "I respect the fellow'singenuity, if nothing else."
But where was Cragthorpe himself? Two searching parties, one under Aband the other commanded by Third Officer Costigan, searched until DickDavis, still on the bridge past his hour, broke in with:
"Why, Captain, you can guess what became of the fellow? When our blazewas under way the 'Victor' turned and steamed nearer to us. The rascaljumped overboard, of course, swam back and was picked up. It must havebeen all part of a plan. At any rate, when the watch officer on thesteam yacht saw the blaze on board this craft, he knew well enough whatit meant, and stood by to rescue the Cragthorpe fellow."
"That's what has happened to him," nodded Mr. Baldwin. "He's safe againwith the other rascals."
So the searching parties were recalled, the new watch was set, and quietat last settled down over the yacht.
It was two o'clock in the morning when Tom Halstead again sought hisrest. That fire had stirred him up so that he did not at once feeldrowsy. A fire at sea, on a gasoline motor yacht, is a trebly seriousaffair. If the flames ever get close to the gasoline supply the blaze isalmost certain to wind up abruptly in a fearful, devastating explosion.
"I've had some lively times at sea, before this," the young skippermuttered, "but this voyage has already gone ahead of anything I've everhad happen at sea. I hope we're through with visitors from the'Victor.'"
At last he closed his eyes and slept, for Halstead was not a highlynervous youngster. When he was free from the demands of duty, andphysically tired, he was not usually long in finding his rest.
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p; Even in his sleep the lad did not lie quietly. He began to toss andthrash, dreaming that he was fighting it out again with Cragthorpe. Itwas like a nightmare, for, in his dream, the young captain of the"Panther" felt himself to be getting the worst of the struggle.
Then, all of a sudden, Tom Halstead awoke, roused by a sensation ofchoking. A man knelt over him in his bed. Halstead's hands were lashed,while a rope was noosed about his neck.
On the front wall of the cabin was a ship's clock. A shaded light burnednear the dial of the clock, giving illumination to enable one to readthe clock's dial from the bed.
That light also showed Tom the face and figure of his presentoppressor--Cragthorpe, in the flesh!
"Now, we're going to have a chance to talk over the other side of thisquestion!" chuckled the wretch, in Tom's ear. "I remained aboard--riskedeverything--in order to have this precious meeting. Just us twohere--fine, isn't it?"
The Motor Boat Club at the Golden Gate; or, A Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog Page 16
