“I did smell it when the scuttle was off; but I don’t smell it now,” replied Bark.
“What was that noise?” asked Bill.
Both of them had heard it, and it seemed to be in the hold. They could not tell what it was like, only that it was a noise.
“What could it be?” mused Bill. “It was in the hold, and not far from the foot of the ladder.”
“Perhaps it was the noise of the fire,” suggested Bark. “It may have burned away so that one of the boxes tumbled down.”
“That must have been it,” replied Bill, satisfied with this plausible explanation. “But why don’t the fire break out? It is time for it to show itself, for fire travels fast.”
“I suppose it has not got a-going yet. Very likely the straw and stuff is damp, and does not burn very freely.”
“It will be a sure thing this time, for I saw the blaze rising when I came up the ladder,” added Bill.
“And I saw it myself also.”
“But it ought to be a little hot by this time,” replied Bill, who began to have a suspicion that every thing was not working according to the programme.