"Instead of which I'm only a Reserve officer on the armed merchantman 'Strongbow'," added Lymore, with a grim smile.
At that moment came a knock at the wardroom door, and a messenger announced that an accident had occurred in the engine-room.
McBride was on his feet in an instant. The thought of anything happening to his beloved engines acted like a red rag to a bull.
All the executive officers not actually on duty gathered round the engine-room hatchway, from which clouds of steam were issuing. It was as far as they dared go towards setting foot in McBride's domain.
After ten minutes' wait, two stokers were sent on deck, both suffering from severe scalds. These were followed by Kenneth Raeburn, whose right arm was swathed in cotton waste soaked with oil.
"Rotten luck, old man!" he exclaimed, with forced cheerfulness, as he caught sight of his chum, Terence. "It's not much as far as I am concerned; merely a slight burn."
Aubyn could see by the expression upon the assistant engineer's features that he was suffering acutely. He did not know at the time that in addition to being severely scalded by the bursting of a steam pipe, Raeburn's wrist had been broken in a gallant attempt to rescue the two stokers as they lay, overcome by the hot steam, upon the floor of the stokehold.
Terence accompanied his chum to the sick-bay, where the surgeon quickly made the discovery that the plucky officer had sustained injuries that would probably necessitate his being invalided out of the Service.
Kenneth read the doctor's fears as clearly as if he had been bluntly told the truth.
"Hard lines," he exclaimed. "Looks as if I'm to be chucked out of the old 'Strongbow'."