A few weeks have passed. It is just after dawn.
Up on the beach, Egholm and Sivert are toiling away till their feet
are buried in the sand, hauling away at a rope that runs through a
square-cut block to the boat. They bend forward and tug till their
faces are fiery red. Then at last the _Long Dragon_ yields and scrapes
slowly up over the stones on to the sand. There it lies, like a newly
caught fish, with a growth of shell and weed under its belly.
“Now--up with her! Put your shoulder to it, slave! That’s it! Now up
and bale her out.”
Sivert had discovered that the water drained out of the boat from one
of the tin patches, and found therefore no need to hurry, but followed
with greater interest his father’s operations. Egholm clambered up the
slope, vanished between two bushes, and came down again laden with a
sack bigger than himself. It was evidently light in proportion to its
bulk, since it could be carried by one hand. In the other he held a
bottle.
Up to now, Sivert had seen only his father’s usual harsh look, but as
he came down to the boat this time his expression changed to a great
smile.
“Now for a grand burnt-offering, boy! The biggest that ever was since
the days of Abraham and Isaac. No; stay where you are. I’m not going to
sacrifice you; _that_ wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice, anyway. It’s the
boat--the turbine. Bale away; we must have it thoroughly dry.”
Sivert splashed about with the dipper, and his father, still smiling,
opened the sack. It was full of shavings.
“A sacrifice and a burnt-offering to the Lord.”
“Wouldn’t it work, then--the brass tap?”
“The turbine, you mean? Work and work, why....” Egholm shrugged his
shoulders. “Oh yes, it worked all right. _My_ calculations were right
enough. Couldn’t be wrong. But _the Lord_ wouldn’t have it. Didn’t
suit Him to let my little invention come out just now, and so”--again
a mighty shrug of the shoulders--“so, of course, I gave it up. I think
she’ll do now.”
He began tearing out handfuls of shavings and spreading them over the
boat fore and aft; they filled up beautifully now they were loose.
“No,” he went on; “God wouldn’t have it. I felt it while I was stoking
the fire that day. The pressure wouldn’t come as it should, though I’d
brought down a whole perambulator full of coal. Then at last, when He
sent away the crowd that had come to see, I understood--I understood
that He was jealous of my triumph and wouldn’t have it. Well, He can
have it now.”
Sivert kept carefully to the opposite side of the boat, away from his
father. It was safer, he felt, in case.... For, despite the smile, it
was evident that his father was in a highly excited state. He did not
scruple to walk round from one side to the other through the water,
with his boots and socks on, though the waves splashed up over his
knees. Sivert felt it would have been better to go round the other end
of the boat, on dry land. At any rate, he preferred that way himself.
Now for the bottle. Egholm waved it generously, sprinkling the paraffin
over the shavings and woodwork. Sivert, too, began to find it amusing.
Paraffin and shavings--that was the thing!
“Got a match?”
Had he not! Sivert’s fingers had been itching for minutes past to get
at the box.
“Right--then fire away!”
Sivert struck a light, but the wind blew it out at once. He took a
whole bundle in his fingers, leaned in over the edge of the boat, and
struck. They went off like tiny shells, sputtering out on every side,
but the shavings remained as dead as the sand of the beach. Once more
he tried the same way, and this time it seemed with better success.
There was a glow deep down among the mass. But nothing came of it save
a smouldering redness that sent a thin white smoke out over the side.
The lowest layer of shavings must have been wetted by the water in the
bottom.
Egholm fired up in sudden anger.
“Get out of it, you Cain! Spoiling my burnt-offering!” He grasped an
oar and struck out at the boy.
Sivert slipped aside unscathed, and clambered up to the top of the
slope.
With a couple of furious blows, Egholm struck the oar through the
rotten planks. The wind rushed in through the opening, and next moment
a burst of flame rose several feet into the air.
A ship laden with flames!
Egholm stood as if petrified; then he began hurriedly throwing on more
combustibles. He had a tar barrel and another huge sack of shavings,
besides a whole pile of dry driftwood.
The funnel stays burned through, and the funnel blew off as a hat is
torn from a man’s head.
The tar barrel lay on a thwart, spewing green flame from its mouth.
The sides had caught already. Egholm took up an armful of crackling
dry weed and threw it in. As he did so, he happened to catch sight of
the little manometer, and he sprang back in dismay. The indicator had
worked round as far as it could, and stood firmly pressed against the
stopping-pin.
God in Heaven! He had forgotten the water in the boiler! Another second
and it would burst!
True, that mattered little, since the boat and all its contents were
to be sacrificed. Nevertheless, Egholm picked up the oar and thrust it
here and there among the flames, trying to open some valve or other. He
had not reckoned on a bursting boiler, which would be out of place, to
say the least, in a burnt-offering. He flung his coat about his face to
shield him from the flames, and stabbed blindly with his oar.
Suddenly the burning boat seemed to shiver. Egholm dropped his oar and
sprang back, expecting to see the whole thing explode....
When he turned round, he saw a strange sight. The screw was revolving
at a furious rate, just touching the surface, and flinging up a hail of
salt water against the wind.
He stooped forward, bending low down, his mouth agape with overwhelming
astonishment. This was more of a marvel than anything he had seen.
He had lied when he said the thing had worked all right the first
time. At any rate, he knew nothing of how it had worked himself. He
had simply had some parts made according to his own idea, and screwed
them together. Now, he could hear the turbine whirring round, saying
dut-dut, just as he had dreamed.
It only remained to see if it would reverse. Could he reverse the
steering-gear in all that flame and smoke? It would have to be done
swiftly--swiftly--for in a moment the boiler would be empty.
He worked and wriggled away with the oar, unheeding the fire that
singed his beard and eyebrows. When this proved fruitless, he wrapped
wet seaweed thickly round his arm and thrust it into the flames.
He had found it now, though in agonising pain. Then--the screw stood
still a moment, and whirled round the opposite way. Egholm could feel
the water spurting up towards him now. It soothed his burns. He stood
still, close up to the boat, and wept.
Sivert sat up on the slope, watching it all. His father called to him
to come down.
“D’you see that?” he cried. Despite the grime and the red burns, his
face wore a look of supreme exaltation. “D’you see that?”
“She’s puffing away finely,” Sivert admitted.
Just then something snapped inside, and the engine stopped. Egholm ran
for more weed to wrap round his arm, but, before he was ready, the
explosion came. The sound was scarcely heard in the gale, only a slight
_pouf_, but it split the boat lengthways like a ripe pea-pod.
Egholm looked on, delighted.
“D’you know what I think?” he said, cooling his martyred hand. “I
think, my boy, we’ve done a great thing to-day. We’ve made a great
burnt-offering unto the Lord. But more than that. We’ve--yes, in a way,
_we’ve heaped coals of fire on His head!_”