“I guess we can straighten them out,” added the Prince, as he followed the captain.
They found the firemen—not only the watch on duty, but all of them—seated in the airiest part of the room, smoking their pipes and cigars as coolly as though every thing was going well on board. The doors of the furnaces were fastened wide open, and the steam was rapidly diminishing in pressure.
“What are you about?” demanded O’Hara, very indignant at the state of things he found in the fire-room.
Mr. Frisbone went to the furnaces at the same time, for it was of no avail for him to say any thing to these men who did not understand his language. He closed the doors of the furnaces, which were tolerably well supplied with coal, and opened the draughts. As he did so, one of the Frenchmen came up to him, followed by two more.
“Non! Non!” shouted one of them, as he closed the draught, and threw open the doors again.
He proceeded to make a rather violent speech in his own language, which was not understood by the Prince. But the latter could understand the man’s actions if not his words; and they meant rebellion as plainly as though it had been formally declared in the English tongue. He was not a man to be set aside by anybody; and he pushed the Frenchman away, and opened the doors and draughts again. He had scarcely completed the task before one of the men struck him a violent blow on the head, which felled him to the floor. But he was not badly hurt, and leaped to his feet on the instant. In the twinkling of an eye he had knocked over two of his assailants; and the third was on the point of hitting him on the back of the head with an iron bar, when O’Hara, seeing his danger, rushed upon the Frenchman, and, seizing the man by the neck, jammed his knees into the small of his back so as to throw him over backwards.
Richards stood in the engine-room at the head of the steps, watching the progress of events. When the Frenchman knocked the Prince over, the engineer called Shakings and Rimmer, both of whom tumbled down the steps in season to defend the captain from a violent assault on the part of the Italians, who were disposed to make common cause with their fellow-laborers. Raymond, hearing the noise in the fire-room, hastened below, followed by Tom Speers. These ample re-enforcements caused the firemen to fall back, and place themselves on the defensive.
“I am ready to fight if need be, though I am a man of peace,” said the Prince, puffing with his exertions. “But I should like to know what I am fighting for. What’s the matter? What has caused this row?”
“The men won’t work,” replied O’Hara.
“What’s the reason they won’t work?” demanded Mr. Frisbone, who was sufficiently familiar with labor difficulties to be competent to meet any emergency of this kind. “Aren’t they satisfied with their wages?”