“Hallo!” shouted one of the engineers in reply.
“We have no control over the rudder, and will have to do the best we can with the wheels,” said George.
“All right,” was the engineer’s answer. “It is getting smoky, but we will stay as long as we can.”
Mr. Black rang to stop, and then to back the port engine, leaving the other still working ahead, and this brought the Sam Kendall around until she lay directly across the channel, her bow pointing toward the left bank. Then he slowed down on the starboard engine, came ahead strong on the port, and the boat shot rapidly across the river, while the three pilots stood awaiting the result with no little anxiety. If there was water enough to float the steamer, her bow would soon touch the shore; but scarcely had this thought passed through their minds when there was a concussion that almost knocked them off their feet, rattled the smoke-stack guys furiously, and caused the tall chimneys to reel and sway about as if they were on the point of falling overboard. The boat had run on the bar, two hundred yards from the bank, and gone on, too, with sufficient force to remain wedged fast; for, although the engines were backed with their full power, they could not start her an inch.
CHAPTER XIII
THE BURNING OF THE SAM KENDALL.
“THE jig is up!” shouted one of the engineers through the trumpet, and his voice sounded as if he were half choked. “Impossible to stay here any longer. Too much smoke. Can’t breathe!”
“Well, stop her and ship up before you leave,” shouted Mr. Scanlan, earnestly. “Come ahead strong, and perhaps she will work closer in.”
One of the engineers obeyed the order, but the other had no doubt been driven away from his post by the smoke or the flames, for his engine continued its reverse motion, while the other was working ahead. The result of this antagonism of forces was to hold the Sam Kendall perfectly motionless, in spite of the current. Her bow was fast on the bar (there were seven feet of water there, however, so that those of her passengers and crew who could not swim were in as much danger as they would have been had the boat been anchored in the middle of the river), and when the hog-chain braces were burned away, she would break in two and sink in the channel.
During this time the fire had made rapid progress, and now thick clouds of smoke were rising on all sides, and the banks of the river were lighted up with a lurid glare, showing that all below the hurricane deck was a mass of flames. There was no one on this deck except the pilots and Bob Owens. The captain had not been seen since the alarm was given. The pilots had done all that men could do. With such courage and steadiness as they exhibited they might have succeeded in placing the boat in such a position that every one on board of her could have escaped to the shore, had they not been crippled at the start by the breaking of the tiller-rope. They could be of no further use in that pilot-house.