The fire only burned up the oil-soaked rags and some empty boxes, not doing any damage to the motor boat, except a little scorching. The smoke made part of the Swallow black, but this could be painted over.
“And very lucky for us it was no worse,” said Mr. Bobbsey, when they were ready to go back to their staterooms.
Freddie stayed and watched the pump as long as they would let him. It could be fastened to one of the motors and it pumped water from the ocean itself on the blaze.
“It’s better than having a regular fire engine on land,” said Freddie, telling Flossie about it afterward, “’cause in the ocean you can take all the water you like and nobody minds it. When I grow up I’m going to be a fireman on the ocean, and have lots of water.”
“You’ll have to have a boat so you can go on the ocean,” said the little girl.
“Well, I like a boat, too,” went on Freddie. “You can run the boat, Flossie, and I’ll run the pump fire engine.”
“All right,” agreed little Flossie. “That’s what we’ll do.”
After making sure that the last spark was out, Captain Crane shut off the water. The Bobbseys went back to bed, but neither the father nor the mother of the twins slept well the rest of the night. They were too busy thinking what might have happened if the fire had not been seen in time and plenty of water sprayed on it to put it out.
“Though there would not have been much danger,” Captain Crane said at the breakfast table, where they all gathered the next morning. “We could all have gotten off in the two boats, and we could have rowed to some island. The sea was smooth.”
“Where would we get anything to eat?” asked Nan.