And the chief, mentally putting aside his feud with the “Jiggers” for the time, said: “They’re keeping it under hatches. Gi’ me the glasses.... It’s in one of her after holds.”
XXIII
THE Hessen had been loading with a miscellaneous cargo that included everything from cotton to baby carriages and wild animals. She had seven cargo holds, each four decks deep; and when a smell of smoke was discovered in the depths of her fifth hold, the wild animals were already stored on the ’tween decks of that hold, with the baggage and the bunks for the keepers on the decks below. To save the animals from being smothered in the smoke, the hatch of the second deck had been covered with double tarpaulins; live steam had been turned in on the smolder; an alarm of fire had been sent out for the fire-boat; and the captain had whistled for tugs to tow him out from the pier—for the fire that had spread from the Sachsen to the wharves had taught the officers of the line to isolate their burning boats.
When Keighley and his men came up their ladders to the main deck, the first officer of the Hessen received them with a hurried explanation of the situation, the frightened animals roaring a chorus in accompaniment from below.
“Can’t you hoist out the cages and let us open up?” the chief asked, when he arrived.
“No place to hoist them to,” Keighley said, “unless we put back to the pier.”
“Well, if we only cut a hole in the hatch and pump her hold full of water, you’ll lose all the cargo in the bottom, won’t you?”
The first officer stroked his brown, German beard. “T’e beasts ... are ... more costly.”