“That you, Mark? Go and tell them to stop sending down buckets; the hose will do now. The fire is mastered, and—”
He did not finish his sentence, for his voice was choking and husky as Mark ran to the other hatch and climbed up with his message.
It was received with a tremendous burst of cheering, the men who had been handing the buckets dashing them down and seizing each other’s hands, while others indulged in a hearty hug.
For the danger was indeed past, and at the end of an hour the men, who had been working in relays, were able to leave off pumping just as the dawn was beginning to appear in the east, while an hour later, when it was broad daylight, the sun rose upon a thin blue thread of steam rising from the hold, and disclosed a group of haggard-looking, smoke-blackened, red-eyed men, utterly worn out by their efforts.
But the ship was saved, and the captain said, “Thank God!”
Chapter Eleven.
How Jack proved to be an Impostor.
The damage could not be thoroughly ascertained, for a vast deal of mischief must have been done by the water poured into the hold, water which exercised the men’s patience a good, deal before it was all cleared out; but the amount destroyed by fire when they worked down to the seat of the mishap was comparatively small, for the smouldering had produced a vast amount of smoke.