“I can’t help feeling that we are wasting our energy,” he said to Mr Morgan. “We are not making the slightest impression.”
“I’m afraid not,” said the officer addressed. “The fire is increasing.”
“Yes; and at any moment it may burst forth with a roar, Morgan,” whispered the captain; “but for heaven’s sake don’t show that we think so.”
Another anxious quarter of an hour passed, and matters were evidently growing worse. The water was passed down into the hold with unabated vigour, the men working desperately, but the pillar of smoke which rose from the hold grew thicker and thicker and half hid some of the flapping sails, for now it had fallen quite a calm. From time to time Mark had been to his mother, who was trying, with the major’s wife, to whisper hope and encouragement to Mary, the poor girl being horrified at the idea of having to leave the ship in an open boat. But at last there seemed to be no hope to whisper from one to the other. Men grew more stern as they worked with savage energy; and in spite of the time which had elapsed since the first alarm there had not been a murmur nor a whisper of going to the boats, which floated on either side and astern.
But the captain and the two mates knew that before long there must be a rush of fire up through the great hatch, that the sails would immediately catch, and then the masts and rigging would rapidly be a blaze from stem to stern.
Mark had just returned from one of his visits to the front of the cabin, where the helpless women stood gazing at the dimly-seen crowd about the hatch, going and coming, and blotting out the dim light of the lanterns placed here and there. He was close to his father as once Mr Gregory came up, blinded with the smoke, and half suffocated.
“I can’t hit upon the place,” he said angrily. “We’re wasting time, Captain Strong, for the smoke comes up all over, and we have never yet touched its source.”
“No,” said the captain gloomily; “but we must persevere.”
“Oh, yes, sir, we’ll persevere; never fear for that.”
“If I could only think of what would be likely to light by spontaneous combustion, it might help us.”