THE PASSENGERS DISCOVER THEIR DANGER
WHAT my feelings were I cannot describe; but it was hardly in terror so
much as with a kind of resignation that I made my way to Curtis on the
forecastle, and made him aware that the alarming character of our
situation was now complete, as there was enough explosive matter on
board to blow up a mountain. Curtis received the information as coolly
as it was delivered, and after I had made him acquainted with all the
particulars said, "Not a word of this must be mentioned to anyone else,
Mr. Kazallon. Where is Ruby, now?"
"On the poop," I said.
"Will you then come with me, sir?"
Ruby and Falsten were sitting just as I had left them. Curtis walked
straight up to Ruby, and asked him whether what he had been told was
true.
"Yes, quite true," said Ruby, complacently, thinking that the worst
that could befall him would be that he might be convicted of a little
smuggling.
I observed that Curtis was obliged for a moment or two to clasp his
hands tightly together behind his back to prevent himself from seizing
the unfortunate passenger by the throat; but suppressing his
indignation, he proceeded quietly, though sternly, to interrogate him
about the facts of the case. Ruby only confirmed what I had already
told him. With characteristic Anglo-Saxon incautiousness he had brought
on board, with the rest of his baggage, a case containing no less than
thirty pounds of picrate, and had allowed the explosive matter to be
stowed in the hold with as little compunction as a Frenchman would feel
in smuggling a single bottle of wine. He had not informed the captain
of the dangerous nature of the contents of the package, because he was
perfectly aware that he would have been refused permission to bring the
package on board.
"Anyway," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders, "you can't hang me
for it; and if the package gives you so much concern, you are quite at
liberty to throw it into the sea. My luggage is insured."
I was beside myself with fury; and not being endowed with Curtis's
reticence and self-control, before he could interfere to stop me, I
cried out:
"You fool! don't you know that there is fire on board?"
In an instant I regretted my words. Most earnestly I wished them
unuttered. But it was too late--their effect upon Ruby was electrical.
He was paralyzed with terror; his limbs stiffened convulsively; his eye
was dilated; he gasped for breath, and was speechless. All of a sudden
he threw up his arms, and, as though he momentarily expected an
explosion, he darted down from the poop, and paced frantically up and
down the deck, gesticulating like a madman, and shouting:
"Fire on board! Fire! Fire!"
On hearing the outcry, all the crew, supposing that the fire had now in
reality broken out, rushed on deck; the rest of the passengers soon
joined them, and the scene that ensued was one of the utmost confusion.
Mrs. Kear fell down senseless on the deck, and her husband, occupied in
looking after himself, left her to the tender mercies of Miss Herbey.
Curtis endeavored to silence Ruby's ravings, whilst I, in as few words
as I could, made M. Letourneur aware of the extent to which the cargo
was on fire. The father's first thought was for Andre, but the young
man preserved an admirable composure, and begged his father not to be
alarmed, as the danger was not immediate. Meanwhile the sailors had
loosened all the tacklings of the long-boat, and were preparing to
launch it, when Curtis's voice was heard peremptorily bidding them to
desist; he assured them that the fire had made no further progress;
that Mr. Ruby had been unduly excited and not conscious of what he had
said; and he pledged his word that when the right moment should arrive
he would allow them all to leave the ship; but that moment, he said,
had not yet come.
At the sound of a voice which they had learned to honor and respect,
the crew paused in their operations, and the long-boat remained
suspended in its place. Fortunately, even Ruby himself in the midst of
his ravings, had not dropped a word about the picrate that had been
deposited in the hold; for although the mate had a power over the
sailors that Captain Huntly had never possessed, I feel certain that if
the true state of the case had been known, nothing on earth would have
prevented some of them, in their consternation, from effecting an
escape. As it was, only Curtis, Falsten, and myself were cognizant of
the terrible secret.
As soon as order was restored, the mate and I joined Falsten on the
poop, where he had remained throughout the panic, and where we found
him with folded arms, deep in thought, as it might be, solving some
hard mechanical problem. He promised, at my request, that he would
reveal nothing of the new danger to which we were exposed through
Ruby's imprudence. Curtis himself took the responsibility of informing
Captain Huntly of our critical situation.
In order to insure complete secrecy, it was necessary to secure the
person of the unhappy Ruby, who, quite beside himself, continued to
rave up and down the deck with the incessant cry of "Fire! fire!"
Accordingly Curtis gave orders to some of his men to seize him and gag
him; and before he could make any resistance the miserable man was
captured and safely lodged in confinement in his own cabin.