HIRAM STRONG, JR., amazed me. Surely this was an outcropping of the
Gold-Beater's blood. He may not ever be a Gold-Beater as the term was
applied to his male parent, but he was destined to be a gold-getter, for
he displayed evidence of that trait when he stood there actually
dickering with the captain for a sum beyond a month's wages as a
fireman.
The seas breaking over the sunken bow of the vessel, and a cargo in the
hold worth at least a million and a half, he had only the captain's word
that the ship would not sink at any moment. However, he saw by my
attitude that I also thought that the wreck could be salvaged.
And he also saw that the ship was wallowing in the trough of the sea,
while the lifeboat was near the water on the lea side, and he knew that
I could handle it.
"You see, captain, we have only your word that she isn't going to sink,
and we have lost confidence in you. You left us three stories down
there to drown like rats. You got everybody else off and never thought
of your firemen."
"I couldn't think of everything, and I tell you she is not going to
sink," shouted the captain, coming closer and pounding the rail with his
big fat hand. "I've got to get her to anchorage or on the beach, and
you've got to help. Fifty dollars is enough; that's nearly a month's
wages," he added, trying to avoid his usual overbearing.
"Why did you let the crew go?" Hiram shot at him.
"I didn't know the for'd bulkhead was holding then. You know if the
for'd head holds she can't sink," he said vehemently, appealing to me
this time. But before I could answer Hiram was after him again.
"And you left us to drown! Our lives are just as valuable to us as any
of the rest of the crew, and maybe more than some of them," he said,
looking meaningly at the captain, who squirmed visibly, now realizing
that we were not ordinary firemen.
"I'll give you a hundred apiece. Now stop talking and come on. We'll
have to run her stern fore-most, and if we can keep the wheel going
enough for steerage way, the wind will blow us in," haggled the captain
like an old market woman.
"A hundred dollars will not interest me; how about you, Ben?" Hiram
turned to me and began taking the lifeboat's rope from the cleet and I
did the same. "You can stay here and drown if you want to, but we're
going. The water here looks pretty deep, and I understand when a ship
goes down it makes a pretty big hole into which we might fall," he added
as we began to lower the boat.
"How much do you want? I've got to save her," he pleaded now, walking
back and forth like a caged hyena.
"If you hadn't let your wireless man go you would have had a tug or
another ship here by this time and they would take as salvage only about
a quarter of a million," suggested Hiram with a cynical smile, stopping
the descent of the boat and making fast again. "We'll stay, but you've
got to pay. Ben here knows something about the engines and I will shovel
the coal, but you've got to give us two-fifty apiece," he added, taking
away my breath and almost prostrating the captain.
The captain began to pace the deck again, then pausing in front of
Hiram, he said, as though imbued with a big idea: "All right, I guess
I'll have to do it, but you've got to hustle." Moving over to me, he
asked if I knew how to start the engines, to which I nodded an
affirmative.
"But, Captain," interrupted Hiram forcibly, "it's got to be cash," and
there came to his mirthful mouth a certain hardness that surprised me,
and again started incipient apoplexy within the captain.
"If I say you'll get it, you'll get it. Isn't my word good for that
much?" he blurted out, trying to control his rage.
"Captain, you left us to drown just like kittens you would like to be
rid of. Your word isn't worth a counterfeit dollar. I wouldn't trust you
for shoestrings. We've got to have the cash--now!" There was genuine
bitterness in Hiram's voice.
"I haven't that much cash on the ship," pleaded the captain, but with a
sort of wolfish gleam in his eyes.
"All right, then. Come on, Ben, let's get out of this. I wouldn't take
his word for one of his firemen's rations of soup and lumpy stew, and if
he gave us the company's I. O. U., we wouldn't get it for a month, and
they'd red-tape it to death," he ended, starting for the ropes again.
"Wait a minute and I'll see," coaxed the captain, starting up to his
quarters nearby.
"The old liar; he's got it, all right. Say, Ben, do you really think she
will float--it seems to me the bow is farther down than it was?" he
queried me with something of a chuckle.
"Yes, I think it will. The sea is a little higher than it was, and that
makes the ship seem lower, but if it gets worse there may be some
danger."
"Do you think we can afford to take the chance?"
"I think we can get away in the lifeboat if the ship gets lower. I'll
watch closely, but if we take the money we are bound to take the risk."
"Oh, if we take the money we will deliver the goods, but hang the money
if the risk is too big."
"It's a fair bet. If we back in it will take the strain off the
bulkhead, but if it does not hold, we'll have time to get away."
"Watch this old jockey; he'll come rushing back with part of the money,
saying that's all he could find." Hiram, Jr., had hardly finished when
the captain came rushing down and gave us in bills the exact amount,
cheerfully, and apparently disposed to treat us as equals.
"Now, boys, we're only about twenty miles off Hampton Roads, and if you
can keep a couple of boilers hot, we'll be there in three hours, and
your job's done. The tide is right and we might be able to get clear
in."
We hauled the lifeboat up so that the sea would not wash over it, but
left our belongings in it, and then hurried below. There was enough
steam left in the boilers to swing the ship, stern shoreward, and
matters looked well. I hurried to the furnace room, where I found Hiram
stripped to the waist, working as if the ship belonged to him. He had
wisely selected the four boilers beside which was the most coal, and
seemed to forget that his hands were sore and his body all too green for
such an effort. I aided him as much as I could and then ran back to the
engines, repeating this operation for two hours. I noticed that the
lightship off the harbor was gradually growing plainer. The upper part
of our propeller blades were exposed because of the ship's nose dip. We
were losing a great deal of power due to that fact. Soon we picked up a
pilot and in another two hours we slowly made the harbor on less than
one leg, and we were through.
"The greatest job ever pulled off! No salvage on this ship or cargo,"
the captain chuckled, rubbing his hands. "Now, let's go ashore and get
some food," he added as cheerfully as would a miser fingering gold. He
had not left the wheel house or given an order since we started.
However, before we got through washing up Hiram began to droop and was
hardly able to walk to a Turkish bath after we got ashore at Norfolk.
He did not improve much, even with a good rub-down after the bath, and I
knew it was the hospital for him. Before the doctors got through with
his examination he was in a wild delirium and they shook their heads. It
was a bad case of exhaustion, and nothing but a strong heart would save
him.