Mr. Briggs saluted and departed below. In less time than he would have thought possible Ned and his twenty picked men joined him below. Among the fire-fighters was Herc. They were all responsible men, chosen for their ability and experience. They must have known that their task was going to be difficult to a degree and dangerous, too. But no traces of anxiety appeared on their faces. Such is the training of a man-o’-war’s-man. He is taught not to flinch from any duty but to obey all orders implicitly, even though he may sometimes doubt their wisdom.
The fire-room was new territory to most of the men on the special fire-fighting squad. It was a place of darkness illumined only by glaring lights which shone through a haze of black coal dust like lamps in a fog, of sweating, half-naked firemen, of gleaming tongues of flame and hissing jets of steam, of heat almost insupportable; and the air was filled with a vibration that hummed like the bass string of some gigantic viol under the tremendous force imprisoned in the high-pressure boilers.
Mr. Briggs explained to the men what they were to do. Their task was to get into the bunkers and remove the coal ton by ton till the burning top part was reached. It was his plan, once this was accomplished, to flood the bunker by high-pressure pumps and extinguish the fire in the smoldering coal.
Sacks were brought and the men crawled into the bunker in squads of three at a time, and as fast as the coal was shoveled into the sacks it was dragged out by those remaining outside and dumped into an extra bunker which happened to be almost empty.
The heat was fearful and the men in the bunker could not stand it for more than fifteen minutes at a time; hence the squad took frequent turns at the work.
“Phew! This is awful,” panted Herc, as he and Ned, black and begrimed as any miners, worked side by side in the bunkers. “It’s worse than being in an oven.”
“Stick to your job, Herc, and don’t talk so much,” counseled Ned, who was wet and streaming perspiration. “We’re working to save the ship,—isn’t that enough for you?”
“Suppose the heat should reach the magazine?”
“It can’t; to provide against just such emergencies there is a partition all around the magazine which can be flooded.”
“It’s flooded now?”