“She’s all right now!” cried Phil. “Let her go and skip.”
Whereupon they skipped.
Over the railings and down the side of the steamboat they went, sliding or dropping, they scarcely knew which, and if Chap had not been ready with his boat, they would both have gone into the water. There was no more danger than there had been a few minutes before, but the moment their work was done a panic had seized them, and they felt they could not get away from that steamboat too soon.
“If you fellows had fallen into the water,” said Chap, as he hurriedly pulled ashore, “you would have taken your deaths of cold, for I never saw you look so hot.”
By the time the Wistar had been blown ashore, there was a little crowd of people on the beach. Some of them had followed the burning steamboat for some distance, and had run over the fields to the river when they saw her coming in. Even Joel’s apathy had yielded to the general excitement, and he waded into the water and pulled in the bow of the boys’ boat before it touched the sand.
“If ever there was a pair of boys,” he said, addressing the red-faced Phil and Phœnix, “as wanted a gar-deen, it’s you two. If your uncle had seen you aboard that bonfire,” he continued, addressing Phil, “he’d ’a’ gone wild.”
Neither Phil nor Phœnix made any reply to this remark, but walking up the bank out of the way of the heat and the smoke, they sat down to watch the subsequent proceedings. For the present they felt as if they had done enough. Chap, however, rushed in among the people, hoping at last that he might be able to do something.
Now that the boat was securely aground in shallow water, and there was a good chance of their getting off if the fire came too near, the men on shore, who would not have dared to go near the blazing steamer when she was out in the river, showed a determination to do what they could to save at least a portion of the boat and cargo.
The boards were torn from a neighboring fence and placed from the shore to the lower deck of the Wistar, and up these slippery and very much inclined gang-planks several men quickly clambered. A heavy hawser which lay on deck was passed on shore, and the boat was made fast to a tree.
The forward part of the Thomas Wistar was now burned to the water’s edge, and although the freight in that part of the vessel was still burning, it was believed the fire did not now extend abaft the engine.