Then it happened. Penny saw a sudden flash of flame which seemed to come from the hold of the excursion ship. The next instant fire shot from the portholes and began to spread.
Captain Barker gave a hoarse shout which sent a chill down her spine.
“The Florence!” he exclaimed huskily. “Her oil tanks must have exploded! She’ll go up like matchwood, and with all those women and children aboard!”
CHAPTER
22
CAPTAIN BARKER’S COURAGE
Never did a fire seem to spread so rapidly. In less than three minutes, as those aboard the River Queen watched in helpless horror, the Florence became a mass of flames from stem to stern. Terrified passengers jammed the gangplank as they tried to crowd ashore. Some of them leaped from the excursion boat’s high railings to the dock below.
“Her mooring lines are ablaze!” Captain Barker shouted a moment later.
“And the freight sheds are catching afire,” Penny added, observing a telltale line of flame starting from the flimsy wooden buildings along the wharf, directly back of the dock where the Florence had moored.
The blazing sheds worried Captain Barker far less than the fact that the mooring lines had caught fire. If the Florence should be cut loose from the dock, helpless women and children would be carried out onto the river in a flaming inferno.
“Why don’t the fire boats get here!” Sally murmured nervously. “Oh, this is going to be a dreadful disaster if something isn’t done to save those helpless people!”
At the bridge leading to the pilot house, Captain Barker stood tensely watching, his hand on the signal ropes.