“I don’t think your imagination has anything to do with it,” replied Bob, grimly. “The ship is further down at the bow. There’s no doubt of it. If that wireless operator were down on deck here, he might not feel quite so confident.”
“It can’t be so long until daybreak now,” said Joe. “If a boat arrives by then, we’ll all be taken off, anyway.”
“Even if one doesn’t get here in time,” returned Jimmy, “we can take to the small boats. The water is calm enough, and we’ll have all the sensations of shipwrecked mariners, except that we can be pretty sure we’ll be picked up soon.”
“I wish we knew just how matters stood,” said Herb. “I vote that we do some scouting around and try to find out just what’s what. If we could get down below decks I’ll bet we’d find out pretty soon.”
“That’s not a bad idea, Herb,” observed Bob. “Let’s go, fellows, and see what we can dig up.”
He led the way to the entrance to the succession of iron ladders that led down into the engine room. He knew that they would not be allowed to go down if they were seen by any of the ship’s officers, but he thought they might get by unobserved in the general confusion.
There was an officer on guard at the door, but his back was turned toward the boys as he stood lighting a pipe, shielding the flame of the match from the wind. They slipped noiselessly through the door, and were soon descending the steep iron ladders that led down into the engine room. Soon they came to the last platform above the engine room deck, and, peering through the grating, could plainly see what was going on below them.
The floor of the engine room was under water, which swirled and splashed about the bases of the main engines. At one side of the room, three big reciprocating water pumps were working at top speed, and the boys knew that they were pumping water out of the hold to the limit of their capacity. But the water was coming in faster than the big pumps could force it out. Even as the boys watched, a sluggish roll of the vessel sent the water swirling around the electric generator that supplied the ship’s lights. The whirling flywheel sent a spray of water flying in all directions, and as some of it landed on the armature and brushes, the lights flickered and dimmed, almost going out.
As the water receded on the return roll, the lights went up again, but the boys realized that this could not last long. The water was steadily gaining, and before long the generator would be put out of commission, and the ship would be in darkness. They knew, too, that the water would eventually reach the fires under the boilers, quenching them and causing the steam to die down. Then the pumps would stop, and the water would gain rapidly, until the vessel finally became waterlogged and sank.
“We’d better get up on deck while we’ve got light to see by,” whispered Bob. “I guess we’ve found out what we came down to find out and what we wanted to know, all right.”