"Oh, I 'll face it, all right!" was Blake's calmly contented answer. "All I want now is about nine hours' sleep!"
"Come on, then," said the fourth engineer. And Blake followed after as he started deeper down into the body of the ship. And already, deep below him, he could hear the stokers at work in their hole.
XIV
After seven cataleptic hours of unbroken sleep Blake awakened to find his shoulder being prodded and shaken by the pale-eyed fourth engineer. The stowaway's tired body, during that sleep, had soaked in renewed strength as a squeezed sponge soaks up water. He could afford to blink with impassive eyes up at the troubled face of the young man wearing the oil-stained cap.
"What's wrong?" he demanded, awakening to a luxurious comprehension of where he was and what he had escaped. Then he sat up in the narrow berth, for it began to dawn on him that the engines of the Trunella were not in motion. "Why are n't we under way?"
"They 're having trouble up there, with the Commandante. We can't get off inside of an hour—and anything's likely to happen in that time. That's why I 've got to get you out of here!"
"Where 'll you get me?" asked Blake. He was on his feet by this time, arraying himself in his wet and ragged clothing.
"That's what I 've been talking over with the Chief," began the young engineer. Blake wheeled about and fixed him with his eye.
"Did you let your Chief in on this?" he demanded, and he found it hard to keep his anger in check.