“Clang! Clang!”
Two gongs. Stop the engines. The Modoc was going ahead under her own momentum only. Then another signal.
Under the stern of the steamer the water boiled and bubbled as the great screw was reversed, to check the vessel’s way. The jingling bell, following the signal to reverse, indicated to the engineer to back his machinery at full speed, and the big craft fairly quivered, so great was the strain of stopping her up short.
But they were master-hands aboard the Modoc and she swung broadside to a wharf as gently as a boy brings his toy boat to a stop. From the deck men leaped to the string piece, with great ropes in their hands, which they made fast to butts and piling. The steamer was tied up, so close to the burning elevator that the boys could feel the heat of it.
“What are you going to do, captain?” asked Mr. Ackerman, who seemed to have recovered from his nervousness, when he found the Modoc was in no danger.
“I’m going to help douse that fire!” cried the commander. “Lively with that hose, men! Lively now! Snatch her quick and I’ll give you all the water you can handle!”
Several brawny deck-hands began pulling a line of hose over the side. Other men were lowering a big boat, into which the men with the hose jumped. The hose was unreeled after them as they pulled out on the lake, in front of the burning elevator.
“I’m afraid it’s a goner,” remarked Captain Wiggs, as a gust of wind sent the leaping flames licking along the surface of the water.
“How did it happen?”
“Whose place is it?”