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 in
his room. Directly over it glowed an electric light in a red bulb--the
fire signal to the cabin.
Tom Halstead fairly leaped from his bed. He got on all the clothing
needed 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 his
face.
Down in the mates' and crew's quarters the fire-bell was ringing
steadily. Officers and men came tumbling up the stairs.
"Stand by the handling of the ship, Mr. Davis!" roared the young
captain from the deck. "I'll have men enough for the fighting of the
fire."
As the first heads showed from below, Halstead roared:
"Mr. Perkins, the starboard hose. Mr. Costigan, the port! Two men each
and yourselves to a hose. The rest report to me."
The hose lay in butts from which they were lifted and fastened to the
deck hydrants. While one man was securing each hose to a hydrant, a mate
and another sailor ran aft with the line along either rail.
"The rest of you get fire axes," shouted Captain Halstead. "Jump up onto
the 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 us
instant pressure."
Though he had heard the fire call, Jed was too dependable to allow
either curiosity or fear to take him from his post. When the order came,
through the speaking tube, young Prentiss was standing by, ready to
connect 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-house
aft.
How it had all happened the young sailing master did not trouble himself
to ask, at first. It was more than enough for him to know that there was
a fire aboard, and to know where it was located.
"Get up close, Mr. Perkins and Mr. Costigan!" he shouted, from the top
of the deck-house. "Let the flames have the water at full, direct
pressure. Steady, now! Throw in every drop of water where it will hit
the hottest, highest flames."
Seldom had fire-drill at sea been more promptly or intelligently carried
out. It was fortunate, at the very outset, that the blaze had started so
near the time for the changing of the watches. The men were rested and
ready for prompt rising.
The slight rolling of the boat carried gasoline along the decks, bearing
the flames with it. A pitching at the bow, slight though it was, brought
these running streams of flame down upon the crews with the hose. They
had to depress the nozzles almost at their feet, in order to assure
themselves of safe standing room.
"Give me one of those axes," shouted Halstead, taking the implement from
a sailor. "Now, two of you jump down aft with me on the deck. Never
mind the fire! Remember, we've got to fight it for our lives anyway!"
Down into the clearest spot he could find young Halstead leaped. Ab
Perkins, seeing him, turned the stream full on the blazing deck around
the young sailing master. That was all that saved Halstead from
perishing. The water kept the flames down so that he was able to lay
about 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 side
of the deck-house, looking for some spot where he might work protected
by the other hose.
The hoarse shouting of orders, the running of feet overhead and the
sharp, sinister hiss of water coming in contact with fire, all combined
to 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 have
enough 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 very
few moments he was outside, and climbing the bridge steps. Then he
dashed aft.
The breeze that was blowing was unfavorable to the fire fighters. The
factors in their favor, however, were the prompt discovery of the
trouble and the thinness with which the gasoline was spread.
The blaze was at its worst in the middle of the after deck. It was the
realization of this fact that had caused young Captain Halstead to take
the desperate leap and make the bold effort that now stood to his
credit.
"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 him
from disastrous consequences that might be expected to follow such a
hazardous act.
By now the hosemen were able to get far enough aft to wet down the
blazing parts of the wall of the after deck-house.
Within five minutes from the time it started the blaze was brought down
to where it required only persistent hosing to drown it completely.
From time to time a sudden gust of the light breeze fanned up the fire
briefly at some point, but the fire fighters no longer feared for their
safety.
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 wisely
refrained from touching the button that would have sounded the heavy
gong 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 and
the 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 the
young 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. The
lock had been picked. On the floor of the brig Tom found what was left
of a steel table fork such as the crew used.
"He forced the tines and shank out of the handle, and worked it over
into a pick-lock," muttered the young skipper. "I respect the fellow's
ingenuity, if nothing else."
But where was Cragthorpe himself? Two searching parties, one under Ab
and the other commanded by Third Officer Costigan, searched until Dick
Davis, still on the bridge past his hour, broke in with:
"Why, Captain, you can guess what became of the fellow? When our blaze
was under way the 'Victor' turned and steamed nearer to us. The rascal
jumped overboard, of course, swam back and was picked up. It must have
been all part of a plan. At any rate, when the watch officer on the
steam yacht saw the blaze on board this craft, he knew well enough what
it meant, and stood by to rescue the Cragthorpe fellow."
"That's what has happened to him," nodded Mr. Baldwin. "He's safe again
with the other rascals."
So the searching parties were recalled, the new watch was set, and quiet
at last settled down over the yacht.
It was two o'clock in the morning when Tom Halstead again sought his
rest. That fire had stirred him up so that he did not at once feel
drowsy. A fire at sea, on a gasoline motor yacht, is a trebly serious
affair. If the flames ever get close to the gasoline supply the blaze is
almost certain to wind up abruptly in a fearful, devastating explosion.
"I've had some lively times at sea, before this," the young skipper
muttered, "but this voyage has already gone ahead of anything I've ever
had 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 highly
nervous youngster. When he was free from the demands of duty, and
physically tired, he was not usually long in finding his rest.
Even in his sleep the lad did not lie quietly. He began to toss and
thrash, dreaming that he was fighting it out again with Cragthorpe. It
was 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 of
choking. 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 burned
near the dial of the clock, giving illumination to enable one to read
the clock's dial from the bed.
That light also showed Tom the face and figure of his present
oppressor--Cragthorpe, in the flesh!
"Now, we're going to have a chance to talk over the other side of this
question!" chuckled the wretch, in Tom's ear. "I remained aboard--risked
everything--in order to have this precious meeting. Just us two
here--fine, isn't it?"