Then a steam-propelled craft came up, fussily and noisily. Abreast of the foremost barge she reversed engines and manoeuvred until a heavy bump, followed by the groaning of rope fenders between the two craft, announced that the tug--for such was her rôle--as alongside.
"I hope they won't want to take in coal," thought Malcolm.
Moments of suspense followed, but there was no attempt on the part of the men comprising the tug's crew to remove any portion of the barge's cargo. Judging by the sounds, they were preparing to take the string of barges in tow, for Malcolm could hear a heavy hawser being dragged along the barge's waterways and made fast to the towing-bitts a few feet from the bows.
The engine-room telegraph-bell clanged. With the water hissing under her stern the tug forged ahead. Then, with a jerk, as the hawser took up the strain, the barge began to glide through the water. Then another jerk announced that barge No. 2 had started; another and another, until the cumbersome flotilla was in motion.
Already, cramped in their close quarters, the New Zealanders were beginning to feel the effects of the heat, as Peter had predicted. Overhead the hot sun poured pitilessly down upon the absorbent coal. The air in the confined space was hot and stuffy. Their throats burned with a torturing thirst--and the day was not more than seven hours old.
At irregular intervals the barges had to be passed through locks, and since the locks admitted only two boats at a time, and the hawser had to be cast off before the gate opened and secured again when the lower level was reached, progress was tediously slow.
Bridges, too, caused delays, for, in spite of vigorous blasts of the tug's fog-horn, the persons in charge displayed no great activity in manning the winches by which the obstructions were swung.
Early in the afternoon the flotilla approached a large town. The hum of industrialism was plainly audible to the two fugitives. The barges were constantly bumping into craft either tied up to the quays or proceeding in the opposite direction. There were swarms of mischievous boys on the banks, whose sole amusement seemed to be throwing stones at the irate bargees, until one of the women grew so furious that she leapt upon the coal that screened the New Zealanders' retreat, and picking up fragments hurled them at her tormentors.
It was another period of great anxiety. The barrel-staves creaked under the weight of the bulky German woman. Some of the lumps began to shift, while particles of coal dust, filtering through the interstices, floated in the already-stifling air, causing intense irritation to the fugitives' eyes and throats.
With feelings of profound relief the New Zealanders heard the woman striding back to her place beside the long tiller, while the next moment the already-gloomy dug-out was plunged into profound darkness.