The hatchway was not open, but smoke was coming up thick and fast all around it. A half-dozen men were around a donkey-engine that stood a little forward of the hatch, and others were pulling at hose. The captain was rushing here and there, giving orders. I did not hear anything he said. No one said anything to us. Rectus asked one of the men something, as he ran past him, but the man did not stop to answer.
But there is no need to ask any questions. There was the smoke coming up, thicker and blacker, from the edges of the hatch.
"Come!" said I, clutching Rectus by the arm. "Let's wake them up."
"Don't you think they can put it out?" he asked, as we ran back.
"Can't tell," I answered. "But we must get ready,—that's what we've got to do."
I am sure I did not know how we were to get ready, or what we were to do, but my main idea was that no time was to be lost in doing something. The first thing was to awaken our friends.
We found the steward in the saloon. There was only one lamp burning there, and the place looked dismal, but there was light enough to see that he was very pale.
"Don't you intend to wake up the people?" I said to him.
"What's the good?" he said. "They'll put it out."
"They may, and they mayn't," I answered, "and it wont hurt the passengers to be awake."