A crowd of Afrikanders, black with coal dust and running with perspiration, filed along the narrow passage between the huge boilers. Amongst them was Jan van Eindhovengen, proud as a peacock at having broken all records in shovelling coal from the bunkers.
When the twenty South Africans had left the stokehold the relieving gang was set to work. Malcolm's task was to remove coal from a cavernous recess, the fuel being handled by Fortescue and Selwyn, who had to transport it to one of the furnaces. At other bunkers a similar operation was performed by their comrades, the "trimmers" being specially instructed to remove the coal in a methodical manner, so that there was slight possibility of the remaining contents being thrown out by the roll of the vessel. Others, armed with long-handled shovels, fed the capacious furnaces so frequently that the place reverberated to the clanging of the red-hot metal doors at the ends of the multi-tube boilers. At intervals the ash-hoists had to be supplied with still-smouldering embers, for so quickly did the heaps of ashes accumulate, that, unless removed constantly, they would seriously hamper the fireman at work in the already-congested space.
Before Malcolm had been twenty minutes at his task he began to realize the necessity for careful removal of the lumps of coal. In spite of every precaution, masses of black, shiny fuel would clatter down from the steadily-diminishing heap. Since he was wearing a pair of canvas shoes and no socks, he had to display considerable agility in avoiding the miniature avalanches.
Presently he came to a tight "pack". The lumps were so closely wedged that the only way to attack the sloping wall of coal was by means of a long "fireman's rake".
Just as Malcolm was releasing the top tier, the vessel gave a heavier roll than usual, and a regular cataract of coal shot towards the mouth of the bunker. Back sprang the lad, crouching the while to prevent bringing his head in contact with a low girder. Even then he was too late. A huge lump, fully eighteen inches in diameter, trundled over his left foot and brought up against the sill of the bunker.
Fully expecting to find his foot crushed, Malcolm was agreeably surprised, and at the same time astonished, that nothing of the sort occurred. Beyond a few slight grazes, he was uninjured. Desisting from his labours, he regarded the mass of coal with studied interest.
"Buck up, laddie!" exclaimed Fortescue. "Keep the pot boiling! Don't go to sleep!"
Disregarding the admonition, Malcolm stooped and grasped the huge mass. He could lift it with the utmost ease. At the very outside it weighed less than five pounds.
"What do you make of this?" he bawled, tossing the lump to Fortescue. The latter, prepared to receive a weighty object, was quite as surprised as Carr had been.
"By gum," he remarked, "that's a mighty queer chunk of coal!"